Friday, Apr 05, 2002
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Chess
By Our Chess Correspondent
In another day of upsets, French youngster Etienne Bacrot shocked No. 2 seed Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine by winning the white game for a 1.5-0.5 triumph. After another gruelling day, the quarterfinalists were spotted and the pairing is: Karpov v Georgiev, Leko v Topalov, Grischuk v Bacrot, Shirov v Azmaiparashvili. The highest seed left in the race, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria has been the most impressive player. Anand started in a flashy manner when he defended aggressively with the black pieces to go one up after 42 moves from an English opening. He sacrificed a pawn on the queenside to promote his queen bishop pawn and win a rook. Azmaiparashvili's last ditch harakiri with a bishop sacrifice did not yield result as Anand had his defence secure to win with a mate in one threat. In game two, facing a modern defence, Anand was eager to exchange material including the queen with the white pieces and gave black's rooks penetrative power. Azmaiparashvili sacrificed a knight to double his rooks on the seventh rank and hand Anand an unexpected first defeat of the tournament in just 32 moves. It was also Anand's first defeat to the much older Azmaiparashvili. They had made two draws in mutual games at Groningen 1989 and Las Palmas 1993. Locked 1-1 in rapid chess, they went into the five-minute blitz game where the Georgian is an experienced fox. Anand played white in game one and once again they repeated the openings and did not get anything against the modern defence although he did better than in the rapid encounter. After a speedy 54 moves they agreed to a draw with each side left with a rook and two pawns apiece. The decisive fourth game saw Anand play the modern Benoni opening by transposition. Azmaiparashvili took him in a side variation and Anand sacrificed a rook for minor piece for the initiative. Azmaiparashvili returned the rook for a bishop and decided to go for a big attack with a pawn less. Unable to hold, Anand returned a pawn and later a piece. He could have defended longer but he did not like the passivity of the black pieces and it led to his quick destruction. The 26th move bishop sacrifice led the Georgian into a forced victory after 41 moves. Azmaiparashvili won the match 2.5-1.5. The results (round two): Zhu Chen (Chn) lost to Anatoly Karpov (Rus) 0-2; Alexey Dreev (Rus) lost to Kiril Georgiev (Bul) 1-3; Peter Leko (Hun) bt Joel Lautier (Fra) 1.5-0.5; Alexander Khalifman (Rus) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul) 0.5-1.5; Alexander Grischuk (Rus) bt Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 3-1; Etienne Bacrot (Fra) bt Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1.5-0.5; Nigel Short (Eng) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp) 1-3; Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) bt Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2.5-1.5.
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