Adams, Anand play out a draw

By Arvind Aaron

DORTMUND, JULY 13. World chess champion Viswanathan Anand came armed with a improvement but Michael Adams of England varied one move earlier with an improvement himself to draw their second round game in under one hour's play.

This was the first of three games to finish in the second round of the 29th Sparkassen chess meeting which is in progress here at the Stadt Theatre on Friday.

``His novelty came before mine,'' said Anand for making such short draw with the white pieces. Later, he finished by saying, ``it is was strong novelty and there was no plan thereafter to win.''

Adams repeated the same Petroff's defence as black which brought defeat in the opening game against Leko. ``I saw 18...Bd6 yesterday at the board, it was the best move,'' said the Englishman who made an improvement on the board and on the points board with a draw.

Speaking about his first round game, Adams told The Hindu, ``There are so many things that I could have done better yesterday.'' He even termed Thursday a ``bad day''.

It only took 49 minutes and 21 moves for Anand and Adams to shake hands and return to their hotel rooms on Friday. In the final position, black's two bishops provide compensatio for white's protected passed pawn. White's has no serious plan to win. Accepting the queen knight pawn means black gets serious attacking chances after a bishop for knight shatter. Unable to move the queen into an offensive role, Anand made a draw offer after his 21st that was accepted.

Anand draws with Morozevich

Earlier on Thursday Anand held the upper hand for long but could not capitalise on it and settled for a draw with Alexander Morozevich of Russia on Thursday.

``I was always very close but never enough,'' 31-year- old Anand said as he came out of the playing hall. A draw with the black pieces is a good result for Anand.

Seeking his sixth title, Braingames world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia posted a fine victory with the black pieces over Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to join Peter Leko of Hungary in the lead after the opening round. Both have one point after the first round and face each other in a crucial clash on Friday the 13th. Anand has half a point and is in the third place.

This event is the strongest held this year and has a category 21 strength. It is a six-player, double round robin tournament. Nine rounds remain to be played in this event which will conclude on July 22.

The 29th edition was formally inaugurated by Mr Michael Meier, manager of Borussia Dortmund, one of the popular soccer clubs in Germany, on the table of the defending champion Kramnik.

Anand and Morozevich drew after playing 38 interesting moves from a Sicilian defence, Taimanov variation, which they reached by transposition after the game started as a closed Sicilian.

Anand looked comfortable in the opening although he had delayed castling. White castled queenside and went for a kingside attack.

Anand had the queen knight file opened up and had queued his major pieces as a battery on the white king for long. When black's awkward knight position was exploited by white, black's pawns looked vulnerable, but the bind on the white king guaranteed a minimum draw.

White successfully stopped black from getting his bishop into the attacking party on the h8-a1 diagonal. Anand gave a valid reason for not taking any chances on the 31st move with a pawn thrust. After 31...h3, white's winning chances were bright, after 32.Nh6+ Kg7, 33.Nf5 Bf8, 34.Rh2 Kg8, 35.Kc1! since black is unable to put the brakes on white's attack.

The computer programmes thought black missed a simple win on the 34th move when Anand could push his king rook pawn. Anand speaking after the game said that move led to a draw as white sacrificed his rook for a perpetual check.

In the game, Anand had six minutes for his last two moves and Morozevich had under two minutes as he drew the game on black's proposal. The rook and five pawns ending was level and neither side had a losing risk.

In the end it was a well fought draw and Anand looked less tired than his rival and had not missed any tactic which is a good sign for a good show in this super category tournament.

Leko upsets Adams

The 1979 born tournament baby, Peter Leko received a hug from his father-in-law GM Arshak Petrosian and a kiss from his wife Sofia Petrosian as he came out of the hall after creating an upset in the opening round against Michael Adams of England.

Leko played with a small but lasting advantage from a Petroff's defence game, white side. Adams defended and lost a pawn on the 34th move and the Englishman's attempt to vacuum the queen side pawns did not result in the drawn ending he had hoped for. Leko won a three-pawns-against-two minor piece ending using his better pawn structure and good knight. Realising that he would be losing two pawns for one of his opponent, Adams resigned on the 49th move.

Kramnik was aggressive from the word go and won in 47 moves with the black pieces in an English opening. He pushed his kingside pawns and established a big space advantage that helped him call the shots in the resultant knight ending. Topalov who was hard pressed for space banked on an inferior exchange to extricate himself and it backfired as black was left with an outside passed pawn. Kramnik's king was closer to the queenside pawns and when his knight was locked, Topalov resigned to start with a defeat with the white pieces. Kramnik was the most impressive of the six players. No wonder he is called the `King of Dortmund' having won the most titles here.

In their 10-game match, Dortmund teenager Arkadi Naiditch has taken a one-nil lead by winning with the white pieces against WGM Almira Lautier of Moldova in 49 moves. The organiser Mr Carsten Hensel told The Hindu, Maya Chiburdanidze reported sick and was replaced by the wife of Joel Lautier who is here as Kramnik's trainer.

The results (round one): A. Morozevich (Rus) drew with V. Anand (Ind); P. Leko (Hun) bt M. Adams (Eng); V. Topalov (Bul) lost to V. Kramnik (Rus).

The placings: 1-2 P. Leko, V. Kramnik 1/1 each, 3-4 V. Anand, A. Morozevich 0.5 each, 5-6 M. Adams, V. Topalov 0 each.

lThe moves:GM V.Anand-GM M.Adams, round two, Petroff's defence, C42: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.Be2 0-0 10.Nc3 Be6 11.Ne5 f6 12.Nf3 Kh8 13.cxd5 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Nxd5 15.Bd3 c5 16.c4 Nb4 17.d5 Nxd3 18.Qxd3 Bd6 19.Qb3 Bg4 20.h3 Bh5 21.a4 Draw.

GM A. Morozevich-GM V. Anand, round one, Sicilian Taimanov, B48: 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.0-0-0 Bb4 9.f3 Ne5 10.Nb3 b5 11.Bd4 Be7 12.Kb1 d6 13.Qf2 Rb8 14.g4 h6 15.h4 Nc4 16.Bxc4 bxc4 17.Nd2 e5 18.Ba7 Rb7 19.g5 Nh5 20.Nd5 Qc6 21.Nf1 Be6 22.Be3 Bxd5 23.exd5 Qb5 24.c3 Nf4 25.Bxf4 exf4 26.Rg1 0-0 27.Rg2 Rfb8 28.Rd2 g6 29.Qd4 hxg5 30.Nh2 gxh4 31.Ng4 Bg5 31...h3? 32.Nh6+ Kh7 33.Nf5 Bf8 34.Rh2 Kg8 35.Kc1 and white is winning.0 32.Nf6+ Bxf6 33.Qxf6 Qb6 34.Rde2 Qd8 34...h3 35.Rxg6+ fxg6 36.Qxg6+ leads to a draw.0 35.Qxf4 Re7 36.Qxh4 Rxe2 37.Qxd8+ Rxd8 38.Rxe2 Rc8 Draw.

GM P. Leko-GM M. Adams, round one, Petroff's defence, C42: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.Be2 Be6 10.Nc3 0-0 11.Ne5 f6 12.Nf3 Kh8 13.cxd5 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Nxd5 15.Bd3 c5 16.c4 Nb4 17.d5 Nxd3 18.Qxd3 Bf7 19.Bf4 Bd6 20.Bxd6 Qxd6 21.Nh4 b5 22.cxb5 Qxd5 23.Qxd5 Bxd5 24.Rfc1 Rfd8 25.Rxc5 Bxa2 26.h3 Bf7 27.Nf5 Rd5 28.Rxd5 Bxd5 29.Ra5 g6 30.Nd4 Bb7 31.Ne6 h5 32.Nc5 Rb8 33.Nd7 Ra8 34.Nxf6 a6 35.bxa6 Rxa6 36.Rxa6 Bxa6 37.h4 Kg7 38.Ne4 Kf7 39.Kh2 Bd3 40.f3 Bf1 41.Kg3 Ke6 42.Nd2 Bd3 43.Kf4 Kf6 44.Ne4+ Kf7 45.Kg5 Bf1 46.g3 Be2 47.Nd2 Kg7 48.f4 Bd1 49.Nf1 1-0.

GM V. Topalov-GM V. Kramnik, round one, English opening, A17: 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qb3 c5 5.g3 Nc6 6.a3 Ba5 7.Bg2 0-0 8.0-0 d5 9.d3 h6 10.Bf4 Re8 11.Na4 b6 12.Ne5 Bd7 13.e3 g5 14.Nxc6 Bxc6 15.Be5 Ng4 16.Bc3 Bxc3 17.Nxc3 dxc4 18.dxc4 Bxg2 19.Kxg2 Qe7 20.Ne4 f5 21.h3 Ne5 22.Qc3 Nd7 23.Nd2 Rad8 24.Rad1 Nf6 25.Nf3 Rxd1 26.Rxd1 e5 27.Qc2 e4 28.Ng1 Rd8 29.Ne2 Rxd1 30.Qxd1 Qd7 31.Qxd7 Nxd7 32.b3 Ne5 33.Nc3 Kf7 34.g4 fxg4 35.hxg4 Nxg4 36.Nxe4 Ke6 37.Nc3 Ne5 38.f4 gxf4 39.exf4 Nc6 40.Nb5 h5 41.Kg3 a5 42.Nc7+ Kf5 43.Nd5 Nd4 44.Kh4 Nxb3 45.Kxh5 Nd2 46.Nxb6 Kxf4 47.Na4 Ne4 0- 1.

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