Anand holds on to advantage

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI, 21. DEC. Viswanathan Anand is holding on to a double pawn advantage and is playing on in the second game with the hope of snatching the lead in the FIDE World chess championship match which is in progress at Teheran on Thursday.

The score after the first game is half point each. Four games remain to be played in this best of six match. On Friday, Shirov will play with white pieces. If there is a 3-3 tie, tie-breaks will be held before the closing ceremony on December 27.

Sharp play marked the opening phase of game two. The Ruy Lopez is statistically the best choice for black against Anand and Shirov tried it. The Arkhangelsk variation has been a feature of many Anand versus Shirov encounters from 1997 when Shirov tried it for the first time at the Investbanka tournament at Belgrade. In their four encounters with that opening, Anand won the most important battle at the World Championship at Groningen 1997 and drew the other three, the last being Linares 1998 where Anand was placed first and Shirov second.

Anand opened with the king pawn as ever and went for the Ruy Lopez. Shirov who had tried a line Michael Adams played in the second game against Anand at New Delhi varied on move seven. The sharp position has been a trendy one chosen in the

late 90s. Anand's eighth move, a prepared theoretical novelty, turned the heat right away as both players slowed down on the clock for the rest of the battle.

White had a cool extra pawn from the opening and managed to keep it. Shirov played well to reach a drawable ending after 31 moves when he equalised the pawn count. Pawns were equal and it was a rook ending.

In a rook and three pawns against rook and three pawns ending, Anand played on sensing that his passed queen bishop pawn may promote and counted a doubled black pawn to his advantage.

When asked why Anand was continuing the drawish ending, GM Peter Svidler in his comments at the Internet Chess Club said, ``because white can torture black for quite some time here.'' In a match, players should do this each time they have white, just as Vladimir Kramnik did against Gary Kasparov in game two. Only Shirov is likely to get tired.

Defending endings are not Shirov's speciality. His 41st move gave white a pawn and along with it the initiative which was the costly mistake in the ending. His quickly made move threw away the balance he had so carefully earned in the first control of four hours.

From this moment, the game was firmly in white's hold with a zero risk of losing. ``I bet on a white victory,'' said Svidler but one player logged in as ``kingkasparov'' challenged his decision and asked for lines which win.

White has two passed pawns on the king rook and king knight files. His rook is in front of the pawns but the king is far away and cut-off. Black's king is nearer the white pawns and that may cut a spoke into Anand's winning plan in the ending.

The moves: GM V. Anand-GM A. Shirov, match game two, Ruy Lopez, C78: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Bc5 6.c3 b5 7.Bc2 d5 8.a4 dxe4 9.axb5 Bg4 10.Bxe4 Nxe4 11.bxc6 0-0 12.d4 exd4 13.cxd4 Bb6 14.Nc3 Re8 15.Be3 Qd6 16.d5 Bxe3 17.fxe3 Rad8 18.Rxa6 Nxc3 19.bxc3 Qxd5 20.Qxd5 Rxd5 21.Nd4 g6 22.Rf4 Bf5 23.Ra7 Rxe3 24.c4 Rc5 25.Rxc7 Re4 26.Rxe4 Bxe4 27.Re7 Bf5 28.c7 Kf8 29.Nxf5 gxf5 30.Rd7 Kg7 31.Rd4 Rxc7 32.Kf2 Kf6 33.Ke3 Ke6 34.g3 f6 35.Kd3 Ra7 36.Kc3 Ke5 37.Rh4 Rb7 38.Rf4 Rb1 39.Rf2 Rc1+ 40.Kb4 Ke6 41.Kb5 Kd6 42.Rxf5 Rb1+ 43.Ka4 Rb2 44.Rxf6+ Kc5 45.Rh6 Kxc4 46.Rh4+ Kd5 47.Rxh7 Ke5 48.Ka3 Rb8 49.Rh5+ Kf6. Game in progress.

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