Anand, Shirov set up title clash

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, DEC. 15. Almost everyone saw it as a job well accomplished. But for Viswanathan Anand, the time to put the finishing touches to the task on hand was still a few days away.

On Friday, there were no last-minute twists and turns to the script of the World chess championship. In the last of the best- of-four-games semifinal, Anand drew comfortably against Michael Adams and Alexei Shirov achieved a similar result after a bit of hard work against Alexander Grischuk. Now Anand and Shirov travel to Teheran for the six-game final, beginning on December 20. Significantly, for a change, the World title will go out of Russia for the first time since American Bobby Fischer won in 1972.

``I was a bit nervous,'' stated Anand as he met the mediapersons soon after the match. He went on to share that until the victory in the second game, he was expecting the semifinal to go into the tie-breaker. ``Michael has very solid opening repertoire. But now I have got so close (to the World title), I am going to go step by step.''

About playing before the home crowd and the pressure of expectations over the past fortnight, Anand said, ``it is not often that I get this kind of press attention. But I also wanted to do well here. Its been a nice reward.''

When Anand spoke of reward, he was certainly not referring to the minimum of $ 396,000 (before deduction) for reaching the final. Anand looked tired but visibly motivated to stop Shirov to claim the title he failed to win almost three years ago.

After failing to cash in on the opportunity to get the better of Gary Kasparov in the 1995 match, Anand's first World title clash came in January 1998 against Anatoly Karpov, but had lost in the tie-breaker. It must be remembered that on that occasion, like here, Anand had come through a series of elimination rounds. Karpov had no such compulsions. Moreover, a fatigued-Anand had to travel from Groningen to Lausanne, where a well-rested Karpov waited for him. Mercifully, this time, the finalists have been given a level-playing field. Besides the title, at stake will be the winners cheque worth $ 660,000.

On this day, Anand played solidly and never gave Adams any hope. Adams, who had given himself five per cent chance of winning with black against Anand, did try hard to find a way but Anand had his pieces so well coordinated that the Briton really did not see himself causing any worries. Since Anand had opted for a very defensive line in Ruy Lopez, Adams' options were limited. Once the queens were exchanged on the 23rd move, as part of the simplification plan of Anand, a draw looked inevitable. When the two agreed to end the contest, both players had a rook and six pawns with Adams having a bishop against Anand's knight. ``Anand played accurately and there was nothing that I could do today. Lets put it this way, he is playing at a higher level than he has ever played before. His records show that he has not lost with white in classical games for a long time. He again played solid chess,'' said Adams who tipped Anand as the favourite against Shirov. Before leaving, Adams had this to say about Anand ``Vishy and I have been contemporaries since our junior days but his play has always been better than my best effort.''

Unlike Anand, Shirov played with black pieces today and Grischuk was naturally all fired up to win and force Saturday's tie- breaker rounds. Shirov's choice of Petroff Defence showed his intentions but soon the match followed the same course as the one between Anand and Shirov in Linares in February this year.

On the 24th move, Grischuk deviated and got into a promising position. But Shirov managed to advance his pawn on `c' file and Grischuk even allowed his senior rival to `queen' the pawn. This `queen' was taken for minor piece by Grischuk and the delayed trading of pieces left Shirov two pawns less. But he enjoyed a position from where he could draw easily. In fact, he could have forced a drawish position earlier, too, but eventually he succeeded in holding on in 35 moves.

Shirov may be on the threshold of playing his first World championship final but drew strength from the fact that he had beaten Vladimir Kramnik in a match to find a challenger to Gary Kasparov. Though the promised challenge-round was never played, Shirov was acknowledged as the man who deserved a chance of meet Kasparov. ``He is playing well but then, I too have had some good results. I am going to fight hard, was how Shirov put it before resuming his match-analysis with Grischuk.

The results: Semifinals: Game Four: Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 2762) 2.5 drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 2755); Grischuk Alexander (Rus, 2606) 1.5 drew with Alexei Shirov (Esp, 2746).

The moves:White : Viswanathan Anand (India); Black : Michael Adams (England): 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Bc5 6. c3 b5 7. d4 ba 8. dc Qe7 9. Qxa4 Qxc5

10. Be3 Qe7 11. h3 O-O 12. Nbd2 Bb7 13. b4 h6 14. Rab1 d6 15. c4 Qe6 16. Qc2 Ne7 17. a4 Nxe4 18. Nxe4 Qg6 19. Nfd2 f5 20. Ng3 f4 21. Qxg6 Nxg6 22. Nge4 fe23. fe Nh4 24. Rxf8 Kxf8 25. Rf1 Ke8 26. g3 Ng6 27. Kf2 Nf8 28. Ke2 Nd7 29. Rc1 Nf6 30. Kd3 Nxe4 31. Nxe4 Kd7 32. Rf1 Ke6 33. Rf2 Bc6 34. Nc3 Be8 35. e4 Bg6 36. Nd5 Rc8 37. a5 c6 0.5-0.5.

White: Alexander Grischuk (Russia); Black : Alexei Shirov (Spain): 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6.Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. c4 c6 9. cd cd 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bc Bg4 12. Rb1 Nd7 13. h3 Bh5 14. Rb5 Nb6 15. c4 Bxf316. Qxf3 dc 17. Bc2 Qd7 18. a4 g6 19. Be3 Rac8 20. Rfb1 c3 21. a5 Nc4 22. Rxb7 Qe6 23. Bb3 Qf5 24. Qxf5gf 25. Ra1 f4 26. Bc1 Rfe8 27. f3 c2 28. Kf2 a6 29. Ra4 Nb2 30. Bxf7 Kf8 31. Bxb2 c1Q 32. Bxc1 Rc2 33. Kf1Rxc1 34. Kf2 Rc2 35. Kf1 Rc1 0.5-0.5.

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