Anand to face Leko

By Arvind Aaron

LEON, JUNE 8. World champion Viswanathan Anand will face Peter Leko in the semifinals of the advanced chess tournament, which is part of the 14th chess festival of Leon on Saturday. He will face Leko with white pieces in the opening and third games and take black in the second and fourth games.

In the other semifinal Alexei Shirov of Spain will take on Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria on Friday. The final will be played on Sunday.

``For me Anand is a favourite and the other three are one strength,'' said Topalov's trainer IM Silvio Danailov. He added by saying if Anand has trouble against one player it could be Topalov.

`Advanced chess,' which started as an experiment in 1998 is now running for the fourth successful year. Analysts often feel chess players come up with excuses saying, ``I made this mistake and lost.'' With `Advanced chess,' they are giving the players a piece of computer and software to control and play a near error- free game. Advanced chess also indirectly aids players known to made tactical mistakes in certain positions or under certain time constraints. A person with more ability to use the equipment will have an edge.

To succeed in `Advanced chess' one has to be adaptable to using the suggestions of the different chessplaying engines and make quick smart decisions using the available resources of the hardware.

Of course, these are secondary to excellence in chess. If chess is only calculation and brute force, computers would win all games. But there is strategy involved. Advanced Chess makes a difference and allows all players to try new openings and play lines not fully developed in their research.

Most of the players except Peter Leko have played chess recently and are considered warm. Alexei Shirov could be tired after playing at Kazakhstan till June 1. Anand had won the classical chess tournament at Merida on May 22. Topalov is also warm having played in Bosnia.

All four players are already here. Peter Leko and his trainer have had a tough year trying various varieties in chess. The latest is Advanced Chess. His trainer GM Amador Rodriguez who lives in Barcelona told The Hindu, ``Anand is an expert in Advanced Chess, so we like to play him only in the finals.''

Candidates tournament in Leon

The Spanish press has gone to town with the news about the Candidates Tournament to be held here in March-April 2002 with the winner to meet Vladimir Kramnik.

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