Anand scores easy win to stay in fray

By Arvind Aaron

MOSCOW, NOV. 28. Showing tremendous competitive and survival skills, World champion Viswanathan Anand recovered from an indifferent start to level the scores with an easy victory over International Master Olivier Touzane of France and force the tie- break in the opening round of the FIDE World chess championship at the State Kremlin Palace here on Wednesday. The winner of the tie-break would face GM Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark in the second round.

In a revenge seeking game, Anand as black faced a queen pawn opening from Touzane and opted for the Benko gambit. Playing under greater tension, Touzane, the 1973-born giant killer of round one, game one did not want to get into any preparation. Anand put his pieces in the right square and commenced a knight sortie on move 18 that helped him win a rook for nothing and win an easy game after just 23 moves. The 1-1 score should come as a big relief for Anand and his large fans across the world.

The news of Anand's defeat may have been big in India but in France nobody really cared because they knew what he would do on Wednesday, said Christopher Bouton, French journalist who edits the French magazine Europe Echecs.

Surya Sekhar Ganguly, perhaps India's best natural chess talent, drew in just 13 moves after accepting the queen's gambit of former champion Alexander Khalifman. In the gambit line which Khalifman, the St. Petersburg player chose to play, Ganguly played the opening correctly and proposed a draw which was accepted. Khalifman had been in a similar 1-1 tied score with Kolkata's Barua in the 1999 Las Vegas World Chess Championship which he ultimately went on to win. Krishnan Sasikiran played another draw and is in the tie-break in his match against Vereslav Eingorn of Ukraine.

The two Indians who bowed out after the main session on Wednesday were Barua, who has played all the knock out events of the FIDE World championship and Harikrishna, the 15-year old debutant from Hyderabad.

Barua was less impressive losing a piece by a massive blunder on the 36th turn to give Joel Lautier an easy first round 2-0 sweep. The Indian played with the white pieces and faced a Sicilian Najdorf opening from Lautier. Keeping a tiny advantage till move 22, the white player tried to win an equal game and paid for it.

Harikrishna who did not press enough with white on Tuesday was unfortunate to lose with the black pieces. He played the Slav defence as black and also obtained a good position where he could park his knight prominently and counter most of white's threats. Beliavsky pinpointed that black should not have given up control of the queen rook file. ``I made many mistakes and lost,'' said Harikrishna who faced a tough opponent like Alexander Beliavsky for the first time in his career.

Barua and Harikrishna return with $ 6,000, the amount for losing the first round. The total prize money in the event is $ 3 million.

lThe results (Round One, Game Two (net score at the end): O. Touzane (Fra) lost to V. Anand (Ind) 1-1, M. Adams (Eng) bt G. Sarthou (Fra) 2-0, N. Zeliakov (Rus) lost to A. Morozevich (Rus) 0.5-1.5, V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) bt B. Shovunov (Rus) 1.5-0.5, W. Kobese (RSA) bt P. Leko (Hun) 1-1, E. Bareev (Rus) bt M. Gluzman (Aus) 2-0, A. Cabrera (Cub) lost to B. Gelfand (Isr) 0.5-1.5, V. Topalov (Bul) bt F. Pierrot (Arg) 2-0, A. Rizouk (Mar) lost to A. Shirov (ESP) 0-2, R. Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) bt N. Vlassov (Rus) 1.5- 0.5, A. Simutowe (Zam) lost to Ilia Smirin (Isr) 0-2, A. Khalifman (Rus) drew S.S. Ganguly (Ind) 1-1, R. Felgaer (Arg) drew Loek Van Wely (Ned) 0.5-1.5, K. Georgiev (Bul) bt F.El Taher (Egy) 1-1, A. Hoffman (Arg) drew P. Svidler (Rus) 0.5-1.5, A. Karpov (Rus) drew Zhang Pengxiang (Chn) 1-1, K. Supatashvili (Geo) lost to Alexey Dreev (Rus) 0.5-1.5, Judit Polgar (Hun) bt Mohammad Al-Modiahki (Qat) 2-0, Li Wenliang (Chn) drew R. Ponomariov (Ukr) 0.5-1.5, Ye Jiangchuan (Chn) drew A. Barsov (Uzb) 1-1, D. Barua (Ind) lost to Joel Lautier (Fra) 0-2, N. Short (Eng) D. Campora (Arg), S. Iuldachev (Uzb) drew Z. Azmaiparashvili (Geo) 0.5-1.5, A. Grischuk (Rus) bt Ghaem Maghami (Iri) 1.5-0.5, Yu Shaoteng (Chn) lost to Zhang Zhong (Chn) 1-1, A. Beliavsky (Slv) bt P. Harikrishna (Ind) 1.5-0.5, I. Nataf (Fra) bt V. Bologan (Mda) 1.5-0.5, P. Nikolic (Bih) bt S. Safin (Uzb) 1.5-0.5, A. Zapata (Col) bt E. Sutovsky (Isr) 1-1, R. Vaganian (Arm) drew S. Belkhodja (Tun) 1.5-0.5, S. Atalik (Bih) drew Xu Jun (Chn) 0.5- 1.5, V. Tkachiev (Fra) drew H. Hamdouchi (Mar) 1-1, Nguyen Anh Dung (Vie) drew S. Rublevsky (Rus) 1-1, V. Zviaginsev (Rus) bt J. Gdanski (Pol) 1.5-0.5, D. Rogozenko (Rom) drew M. Gurevich (Bel) 0.5-1.5, F. Vallejo Pons (ESP) bt S. Savchenko (Ukr) 1-1, D. Gurevich (USA) drew R. Dautov (Ger) 0.5- 1.5, K. Sakaev (Rus) drew A. Volokitin (Ukr) 1-1, G. Timoshenko (Ukr) drew A. Delchev (Bul) 0.5-1.5, A. Lastin (Rus) bt O. Cvitan (Cro) 1.5-0.5, C. Liang (Chn) drew A. Motylev (Rus) 0.5-1.5, S. Movsesian (Cze) drew V. Malakhatko (Ukr) 1-1, Teimour Radjabov (Aze) drew Jaan Ehlvest (Est) 1-1, S. Shipov (Rus) bt A. Lesiege (Can) 1.5-0.5, L. Psakhis (Isr) drew V. Korchnoi (Swz) 1-1, S. Tiviakov (Ned) drew L. Christiansen (USA) 1-1, A. Yermolinsky (USA) lost to V. Milov (Swz) 1-1, G. Milos (Bra) bt Dao Thien Hai (Vie) 1.5-0.5, A. Ivanov (USA) drew E. Pigusov (Rus) 0.5-1.5, A. Graf (Ger) bt S. Sulskis (Ltu) 1-1, L. Bruzon (Cub) drew L.D. Nisipianu (Rom) 1-1, S. Lputian (Arm) bt M. Krasenkov (Pol) 2-0, A. Shabalov (USA) drew G. Kaidanov (USA) 1.5-0.5, T. Luther (Ger) bt S. Volkov (Rus) 1-1, I. Khenkin (Ger) drew K. Asrian (Arm) 1- 1, Z. Gyimesi (Hun) drew S. Conquest (Eng) 1-1, G. Vescovi (Bra) bt B. Gulko (USA) 1.5-0.5, P. Kostur (Kaz) drew L. Dominguez (Cub) 1-1, J. Benjamin (USA) drew V. Baklan (Ukr) 1-1, A. Fedorov (Blr) drew A. Anastasian (Arm) 0.5-1.5, B. Macieja (Pol) bt B. Avrukh (Isr) 2- 0, V. Eingorn (Ukr) drew Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) 1-1, K. Aseev (Rus) drew M. Kobalija (Rus) 1-1, A. Goldin (USA) drew P.H. Nielsen (Den) 0.5-1.5.

The moves:IM Olivier Touzane-GM V. Anand, round one, game two, Benko gambit, A57: 1. d4 Nf6, 2. c4 c5, 3. d5 b5, 4. Nd2 d6, 5. e4 b4, 6. Bd3 g6, 7. b3 Bg7, 8. Bb2 0-0, 9. Ne2 a5, 10. a3 Nbd7, 11. Qb1 e5, 12. dxe6 fxe6, 13. axb4 cxb4, 14. 0-0 e5, 15. Ng3 h5, 16. Ne2 Nc5, 17. Nf3 Bg4, 18. Ng5 Nxb3, 19. f3 Nd2, 20. Qa2 b3, 21. Qa3 Nxf1, 22. c5 Nd2, 23. Bc1 dxc5 0-1.

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