The Hindu : Leko takes UAE Grand Prix title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 09, 2002

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Sport - Chess

Leko takes UAE Grand Prix title

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI April 8 : Peter Leko of Hungary defeated Alexander Grischuk of Russia, 3-2, in the sudden death tiebreak game to win the inaugural UAE Grand Prix chess tournament in Dubai on Monday. Leko, from Szeged, in Hungary, played cautiously in the final game and missed some chances although he won the must-win sudden death encounter with the white pieces after both the regular rapid games and the tiebreak games produced four draws. Leko becomes richer by $43,200 and Grischuk picked up $22,800.

Late on Sunday, Russian Grischuk shocked Alexei Shirov of Spain 2.5-1.5 to enter the final.

On Monday, in the more interesting fight for the third place, Alexei Shirov overcame Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria 2.5-1.5 to pick up $18,000. Georgiev finished fourth and received $15,600.

On his course to his first career rapid knock out title, the 1979-born Leko played 18 games and beat Mohamad Al-Modiahki (Qat) 2-0, Joel Lautier (Fra) 1.5-0.5, Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2.5-1.5, Kiril Georgiev (Bul) 3-2, Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 3-2. In two of the five victories, Leko came from behind to win against Topalov and Georgiev.Being a defensive player, Leko wins fewer tournaments and is a surprise winner of this rapid chess tournament. He fought enthusiasticaly and never gave in to a draw although the position in the sudden death game looked dead level from move 39. Had Grischuk lasted 13 more moves he could have claimed a draw for no captures were made from move 39 till he lost on move 76.

The first two rapid encounters were drawn in 18 and 35 moves with Leko giving up a rook for bishop in the second one but had enough compensation to make a draw with the white pieces. In the blitz games, the first was drawn once again with Leko sacrificing a rook for bishop and pawn.

The last blitz game was pawn locked draw in 35 moves and it triggered the sudden death encounter. There, white had five minutes to black's four, but white had to win and this is what Leko achieved for the second day in succession.

Viswanathan Anand had a brilliant final day winning 2-0 against fellow former world champion Alexander Khalifman of Russia to claim the ninth place and earn Grand Prix points.

The next Russian Grand Prix will be held at Moscow in May. Three other Grand Prix events will be held at Dubrovnik in Croatia, Bangalore or Mumbai in India and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. FIDE is making sure that its calendar spreads into most of the year. It started with the World championship at Moscow where Ponomariov won, then the five Grand Prix events including this one. Then, they have the World Cup at Hyderabad in October and finish with the Chess Olympiad at Bled in Slovenia from October 27-November 13.

In the first game, Anand won a 56-move rook ending with the white pieces using two passed pawns. In the black game, Anand won three pawns between moves 40 and 46 to force Khalifman to defeat in a slow manoeuvring encounter. Anand seemed to have played the last four games like one who wanted to enjoy his games and free of pressures of having to win. Scanning Anand's results, his second round loss appeared more like an accident as he won all his other matches. At Dubai, Anand beat Taleb Moussa (UAE) 1.5-0.5, lost 1.5-2.5 to Azmaiparashvili (Geo), beat Nigel Short (Eng) 2-0, Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 3-1, beat Khalifman (Rus) 2-0.

The results: finals: Peter Leko (Hun) bt Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 3-2. Round five, classifications: Alexei Shirov (Esp) bt Kiril Georgiev (Bul) 2.5-1.5, Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) lost to Anatoly Karpov (Rus) 0.5-1.5, Etienne Bacrot (Fra) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul) 0.5-1.5, Viswanathan Anand (Ind) bt Alexander Khalifman (Rus) 2-0, Teimour Radjabov (Aze) lost to Alexey Dreev (Rus) 0.5-1.5, Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) lost to Joel Lautier (Fra) 0.5-1.5, Nigel Short (Eng) bt Zhu Chen (Chn) 2-0. Semifinals: Alexander Grischuk (Rus) bt Alexie Shirov (Esp) 2.5-1.5. Placings 5-8: Anatoly Karpov (Rus) bt Veselin Topalov (Bul) 3-1; Etienne Bacrot (Fra) lost to Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) 0.5-1.5.

Final placings: 1. Peter Leko (Hun), 2. Alexander Grischuk (Rus), 3. Alexei Shirov (Esp), 4. Kiril Georgiev (Bul), 5. Anatoly Karpov (Rus), 6. Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo), 7. Veselin Topalov (Bul), 8. Etienne Bacrot (Fra), 9. Viswanathan Anand (Ind), 10. Alexander Khalifman (Rus), 11. Alexey Dreev (Rus), 12. Teimour Radjabov (Aze), 13. Joel Lautier (Fra), 14. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr), 15. Nigel Short (Eng), 16. Zhu Chen (Chn).

The moves: GM V.Anand-GM A.Khalifman, round five, rapid chess, game one, Caro-Kann defence, B19: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nf6 8.Ne5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+ 12.Bd2 Bb4 13.c3 Be7 14.0-0 Nbd7 15.Rfe1 Nxe5 16.Rxe5 Qc7 17.Rae1 0-0-0 18.b4 Bd6 19.R5e2 Bf4 20.Ne4 Bxd2 21.Nxd2 g5 22.Nf3 gxh4 23.Ne5 Nd5 24.Qf3 Rhg8 25.c4 Nxb4 26.a3 Na6 27.Re4 Qe7 28.Qxf7 Qxf7 29.Nxf7 Rd7 30.Nxh6 Rgd8 31.Rxh4 Rxd4 32.Rxd4 Rxd4 33.Rxe6 Rxc4 34.g4 Nc5 35.Rf6 Nd7 36.Re6 Nc5 37.Re7 Re4 38.Rf7 Ne6 39.f3 Rf4 40.Re7 Nd4 41.Kg2 Nxf3 42.Kg3 Rf6 43.Nf5 Ng5 44.Rg7 Ne6 45.Nd6+ Kd8 46.Nxb7+ Ke8 47.Nd6+ Kf8 48.Rxa7 Nd4 49.Ne4 Rf3+ 50.Kh4 Ne6 51.a4 Rf4

52.Nd6 c5 53.a5 c4 54.Nb5 Nd4 55.Nxd4 Rxd4 56.Rc7 1-0.

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