Anand, Khalifman play it safe

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, DEC. 10. Left to Viswanathan Anand, he would have preferred to work overtime on Sunday, accomplish the job on hand and then take a day off to celebrate his 31st birthday. But then, Alexander Khalifman is not here to make things comfortable for the home favourite. The World champion is here to protect his reputation and, if permitted, enhance it.

With plenty at stake, Khalifman and Anand once again chose to play it safe in the second game of their World chess championship quarterfinal clash. Following their miniature 17- move draw, its `shoot-out' time on Monday. But certainly not for the weak- hearted.

Only Michael Adams took his designated place in the semifinals following a comfortable draw against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. Topalov, who had bounced back against Alexey Dreev in the pre- quarterfinals after losing the first game, could not reproduce the magic on this day.

Alexei Shirov did what Topalov could not. Needing nothing less than a victory to stay alive in the competition, Shirov turned the tables on Evgeny Bareev and forced the tie- breaker. The lesser-known duo of Vladislav Tkachiev and Alexander Grischuk played out another short, but interesting, draw to happily go into the decisive rounds on Monday.

Once again, Anand showed how well prepared he was with black pieces. Khalifman acknowledged the fact and said he was neither satisfied, nor upset with the outcome after playing white pieces. Anand chose to describe the line as, ``too drawish'' during his quick visit to the media-room and appeared rather relieved, giving the impression that he had come prepared for a long day at office.

This English Opening game, which slowly resembled Nimzo-Indian, followed the same line as the one between Vladimir Kramnik and Anand in Dortmund, 1998. ``But he showed some improvement this time,'' said Khalifman about Anand after deviating from the sequence of that match on the 13th move by choosing to castle on the kings side.

``In such a position, I didn't have an active plan. It became clear to me that any active play from me would have led nowhere. Even some new exchanges would have led us to a draw.

Anand had prepared some good idea. May be we could have played another five moves. But it was just too drawish,'' was the opinion of the champion. Looking ahead to the tie-breakers, Khalifman said, ``yes, I've been through tie-breakers here but then Anand is not so tired. He, too, is very good in rapid chess,'' said the Russian, stating the obvious.

The Shirov-Bareev battle in French Defence looked like going only one way from the very beginning. Shirov, strong from the opening, managed to post both his knights in the centre. He then castled on the queens side and launched the offensive by lining up his queen and rook on the open `g' file.

Undeterred, Bareev repulsed the aggression but remained positionally inferior. Shirov then forked Bareev's rooks on the 27th move and won a pawn off the next. Bareev saw no encouraging reasons to continue and he resigned on the 29th move.

Later, Adams advanced more by design than accident. Playing with black pieces, he chose the Petroff Defence to work his way to a draw. Adams exchanged the pieces at every available opportunity to force the game to an ending where both players had a rook, bishop and three pawns. The draw was agreed on the 41st move.

``I chose Petroff because its a good one when you need a draw. Once I swapped the pieces, it was a comfortable draw,'' said Adams who enjoys a free day as he waits for the winner of the big match involving Anand and Khalifman.

An interesting battle

Unlike their listless draw on Saturday, Tkachiev and Grischuk were involved in an interesting battle though it eventually produced a similar result. On Saturday, if Grischuk showed his lack of preparation in tackling the Marshall Attack employed by Tkachiev, on Sunday it was the turn of the latter to shy away from what the former had come up with.

On the very fourth move, Grischuk threatened to take the game into a very tricky Noteboom Variation, a line which perhaps Tkachiev was not exactly prepared to face. Tkachiev avoided this variation and opted a positional line leading to Dutch-Stonewall. By the 19th move, they decided they could continue their battle of wits on Monday.

The results (quarterfinals, game two): Alexander Khalifman (Rus, 2667) 1 drew with Vishwanathan Anand 1; Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2707) 0.5 drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 2755) 1.5; Vladislav Tkachiev (Fra, 2657) 1 drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2606); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 2746) 1 bt Evgeny Bareev (Rus, 2702) 1.

The moves: White, Alexander Khalifman (Russia) vs Black, Viswanathan Anand (India): 1. Nf3 Nf6, 2. c4 e6, 3. Nc3 Bb4, 4. Qc2 0-0, 5. a3 Bxc3, 6. Qxc3 b6, 7. b4 a5, 8. Bb2 axb4, 9. axb4 Rxa1+ 10. Bxa1 c5, 11. e3 d6, 12. Be2 e5. 13. 0-0 Re8, 14. d3 Na6, 15. bxc5, bxc5, 16. Rb1 Nb4, 17. Qb3 0.5-0.5.

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