Anand begins with a draw

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC.21 World No.2 Viswanathan Anand who is making his third attempt to win the world title started his campaign with a draw in the opening game against Alexei Shirov of Spain at Teheran on Wednesday.

Draw is a good result with black for Anand will have three whites and two blacks from the remaining five games in this FIDE World chess championship finals. Anand played the French defence with the black pieces, something which Shirov has been playing regularly this year. Shirov who opened with the king pawn as white, preferred the advanced variation, keeping a slight space advantage.

The early exchange of minor pieces led to the major pieces middlegame by move 16. When white tried to take advantage of black's uncastled king structure, Anand managed to exchange

off queens and force the game into a rook and minor piece ending. White's lead in development and strong positioning of the rooks were more than enough compensation for the sacrificed pawn. In the key moment of the game black broke on the king side on move

24. One grandmaster commentators said, ``Anand will never miss these moves.'' White could have slowed down the speedy exchange of queens on move 18 by doubling rooks on the open queen bishop file. Then, after black develops and it would be a double-edged encounter with black enjoying an extra pawn. By move 26 black lost the extra pawn and was aiming for counterplay on king side.

White could have locked black's king side rook from the game with 26.h4 but Shirov thought he was doing something better. After black activated his rook, white's advantage looked diminished and the players repeated moves before signing for a peaceful start to their most important match of their careers. The 34-move draw gives a quiet start for the match.

The moves: GM A.Shirov-GM V.Anand, match game one, French defence, C02: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.a3 a5 7.Bd3 Bd7 8.0-0 cxd4 9.cxd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Qxd4 11.Nc3 Qb6 12.Qg4 g6 13.Be3 Bc5 14.Na4 Bxa4 15.Qxa4+ Kf8 16.Bxc5+ Qxc5 17.Rac1 Qb6 18.Qd7 Rd8 19.Qc7 Qxc7 20.Rxc7 Rb8 21.Rfc1 Ne7 22.f4 Nc6 23.Rc5 Kg7 24.Rb5 g5 25.g3 h5 26.Rbxb7 Rxb7 27.Rxb7 h4 28.Kg2 hxg3 29.hxg3 gxf4 30.gxf4 Rh4 31.Kg3 Rh1 32.Kg2 Rh4 33.Kg3 Rh1 34.Kg2. Draw agreed.

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