Anand celebrates b'day in style

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, DEC. 11. More often than not, when it comes to the question of `survival of the swiftest', one man seems to have all the answers. This day was no different, though quite a few hearts skipped a beat or two and quite a few fingernails were chewed amid mounting tension.

In the end, Vishwanathan Anand gave all present cause to celebrate. His 31st birthday was just one of reasons. The biggest reason to rejoice was Anand's entry into the semifinals of the men's World chess championship.

But spare a thought for Alexander Khalifman. After all, he fought gallantly against a man who carried the wishes and blessings of millions. Though Khalifman squandered a golden opportunity to win the second game to set up a four-match clash with Michael Adams, he never showed any signs of being intimidated. In the third game his bishop-sacrifice for three pawns backfired and in the fourth, his position was slowly lost before chess etiquettes came into play and ensured a draw. But in no way, a defeated Khalifman had reasons to feel disgraced.

For the record, Anand and Khalifman drew the two 25- minute rapid games, with Anand looking clearly lost in the rook- and-pawn ending. After quietly slipping out of Khalifman's grasp, Anand made the most of his `second life' and lived on by winning the first of the 15-minute game. Here too, he may not have appeared too comfortable until the middle of the middle-game but thereafter, he marshalled his resources brilliantly.

With Khalifman needing a victory to survive in the championship, Anand played solid chess with black and never allowed the Russian to threaten. As the game drifted into an ending involving two minor pieces and pawns for both players, Anand could have forced another victory but then, it did not matter since a draw was enough to clinch the issue.

``Once you've stared at death, you are not afraid any more,'' was how Anand chose to describe his feeling on escaping with a draw in the second game. ``It (the second game) was totally lost and that was my worst game of the day,'' admitted Anand as he demonstrated where Khalifman overlooked the winning line in the match which eventually ended in draw after 64 moves.

Interesting was the fact that in the decisive third game, the first 20 moves followed the same sequence as the one between Khalifman and Veselin Topalov in the recent Olympiad. Though Khalifman had lost on that occasion, he came up with an improved plan in a bid to fox the Indian. But to his utter surprise Anand had come better prepared and marshalled his resources magnificently to pull off a timely victory. Here, for a change, Anand began with `c4' instead of his preferred opening beginning with `e4'.

Looking ahead to his match against Adams Anand said, ``Mickey has been playing well and has made it to his third semifinals of the World championships. Its been so much like Groningen (when Anand defeated Adams, in 1997, for a place in the challenge-round against Anatoly Karpov) where I had a long game against Halif (Khalifman), then met Mickey. I hope it'll be a good game again.''

Later in the evening, Adams told The Hindu, ``I always expected Anand to win since he is so good when the duration becomes shorter and shorter. When I play Anand, I am never really under any pressure. So, I plan to go about my match just as I have done so far in the championship.''

The British Grandmaster conceded that he was not particularly happy with the quality of his matches here but added, ``my last couple of matches were good.'' When reminded of their 1997 match Adams said, ``I have become stronger since then, but so has Anand. In the recent past, my record against him is not all that bad.''

From the bottom half of the draw, 17-year-old Alexander Grischuk gatecrashed into the semifinal, where he faces the man he admires most: Alexie Shirov.

After drawing the first game in 50 moves of Slav, Grishchuk halted Vladislav Tkachiev with a commanding verdict in the next. Playing from white side of Spanish, Grischuk wrecked havoc with his queen and rook and kept polishing off the pawns. Tkachiev finally gave up on the 48th move.

Earlier Shirov removed Evgeny Bareev from the way. Shirov won the first match of the day by punishing Bareev's erroneous knight- move in the advanced variation of Caro-Kann. In the second game, Bareev looked better with Shirov's bishop busy in defending the pawns at one stage. But Shirov did not allow him any more liberties and forced a draw to march ahead.

The results (quarterfinals, tie-breaker): Vishwanathan Anand (India, 2762) bt Alexander Khalifman (Rus, 2667) 2.5-1.5; Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2606) bt Vladislav Tkachiev (Fra, 2657) 1.5-0.5; Alexei Shirov (Esp, 2746) bt Evgeny Bareev (Rus, 2702) 1.5-0.5.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Next     : Jun makes short work of Kovalevskaya