Anand begins with draw

By Arvind Aaron

MONTE CARLO, MARCH 17. World champion Viswanathan Anand drew his first encounter as champion against Anatoly Karpov of Russia after missing a possible chance to win a pawn in the opening rapid game of the 10th Amber Chess Tournament here at Le Metropole Palace Hotel on a wet and windy afternoon.

The first session of the $193,250 tournament was eventful that five of the six games ended decisively. Anand, former winner of the tournament in 1994 and 1997 drew Karpov, winner of the tournament in 1995 in a heavy weight encounter.

Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik was lucky to prevail over Jeroen Piket of the Netherlands when the older Dutchee capitulated in the dying moments of the bishop ending.

The best game of the day was won by Alexei Shirov whose brilliance and attacking sacrifice kept Van Wely guessing before bowing to defeat. Shirov sacrificed a rook and two pieces for a queen and won in 51 enterprising moves to leave a typical mark of his on the tournament.

The big game between Anand and Karpov fizzled out into an insipid 25-move draw with Anand defending securely with the black pieces in a queen's Indian defence. Karpov, who could not achieve any opening advantage with white, was lucky to make a draw as the pressroom thought Anand could win a pawn and played for a victory with a big time advantage on the clock.

Gelfand sacrificed a knight a sliced his way to gain access to the key areas around Ljubojevic's king and won with sparkling play in just 23 moves. It was a queen's gambit accepted and Ljubojevic overlooked tactics. Leko, who made the big splash on a rainy day by winning with the black pieces, said white's 28th move was a serious mistake and black had `free hands' to attack at will and the target was easy to achieve. His bishop sacrifice on move 34 ripped open white's king's side from where Ivanchuk lost a piece and preferred to resign on move 41.

Earlier, the 10th edition of the tournament was inaugurated on Friday evening. The organisers were thrilled by the response since nobody refused an invitation to play and proud to have ``two world champions''. The sponsor Mr. J.J. Oosterom had a special hysteric scream to congratulate Kramnik for his victory over Kasparov in London.

Anand drew No. 4 and will play these players in order: Karpov, Ljubojevic, Leko, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Piket, Almasi, Van Wely, Topalov, Kramnik and Shirov. The easiest stretch is in the middle although it is evenly distributed unlike in Wijk aan Zee where it was easy at the end.

The results:

Round one (rapid): B. Gelfand (Isr) bt L. Ljubojevic (Yug), A. Karpov (Rus) drew with V. Anand (Ind), V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) lost to P. Leko (Hun), Z. Almasi (Hun) lost to V. Topalov (Bul), V. Kramnik (Rus) bt J. Piket (Ned), A. Shirov (ESP) bt L. Van Wely (Ned).

The standings mid-way through round one: 1-5 B. Gelfand, V. Kramnik, P. Leko, A. Shirov, V. Topalov 1/1 each, 6-7 V. Anand, A. Karpov 0.5 each, 8-12 Z. Almasi, V. Ivanchuk, L. Ljubojevic, J. Piket, L. Van Wely 0 each.

The moves:

GM Anatoly Karpov-Viswanathan Anand, round one, rapid chess, queen's Indian defence, E15: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. b3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Be7 7. Bg2 c6 8. Bc3 d5 9. Ne5 Nfd7 10. Nxd7 Nxd7 11. Nd2 0-0 12. 0-0 Nf6 13. e4 b5 14. Re1 dxe4 15. Qc2 Rb8 16. Rad1 Qc8 17. Bf1 bxc4 18. bxc4 c5 19. Nxe4 cxd4 20. Bxd4 Nxe4 21. Qxe4 Bb7 22. Qe5 Bf6 23. Qc5 Bxd4 24. Qxc8 Rfxc8 25. Rxd4 Bc6 Draw.

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