The Hindu : Ponomariov in lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Ponomariov in lead

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI AUG. 17. The opening day's honours were bagged by world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine with a 2-1 lead over former world champion Viswanathan Anand by winning their third game in their best of eight rapid chess match which began in Mainz on Friday evening.

Anand ran into unexpected problems in both black games and he did well to save one of them but was not lucky the second time. In match game two where he had white, Anand could not convert a small advantage. What he got was a draw after his opponent claimed it by repetition of moves.

Earlier, in game one Anand escaped with a draw after Ponomariov floundered from a winning position on move 34.

The Indian should be happy to be just a game down after a weak performance with the two black games in day one.

In the second, Anand opened with his favourite king pawn and Ponomariov responded with the Sicilian defence, Najdorf variation. In the English attack, Anand played the oft-repeated opening line expecting to get some advantage.

In the women's match, Elisabeth Paehtz from Germany pulled one back after going down 0-2 to the world women's championship challenger, Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia. After winning a pawn and a piece with the Sicilian dragon opening as black to seize the lead, Kosteniuk swung into a two point lead when she sliced through with her queen and rook to hunt the black king down in 32 moves.

In the third game, Paehtz won a rook and two bishops for her queen to win a 39-move encounter and reduce the deficit.

Peter Svidler from the Russian city of St. Petersburg won the Chess960 Open at Mainz by winning all his games on Friday for a 9/11 score. GM D. Fridman of Latvia and GM Alexander Motylev finished second and third with 8.5 points each.

India's fifth seed Krishnan Sasikiran scored twice in the last two rounds to increase his points tally to seven points. After five rounds in the opening day, Sasikiran was even sharing the lead but faltered to lose ground and figure in a tie for the 22nd place. Most of the players are staying back for the regular open tournament.

The moves: GM Ruslan Ponomariov - GM Viswanathan Anand, match game three, Sicilian Sveshnikov, B33: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 f5 11. Bd3 Be6 12. O-O Bxd5 13. exd5 Ne7 14. c3 Bg7 15. Qh5 e4 16. Bc2 O-O 17. Rae1 Qc8 18. Bb3 Ng6 19. Nc2 Re8 20. f4 exf3 21. Rxe8+ Qxe8 22. Qxf3 f4 23. Re1 Qd7 24. Nb4 a5 25. Nc6 Re8 26. Rxe8+ Qxe8 27. Kf1 b4 28. cxb4 axb4 29. Qe2 Qd7 30. Bc2 Ne5 31. Qe4 f3 32. Qxh7+ Kf8 33. Qe4 fxg2+ 34. Kxg2 Ng4 35. h3 Ne5 36. Ba4 Kg8 37. Qxb4 Ng6 38. Bc2 Qe8 39. Qe4 Qa8 40. a4 Bxb2 41. Qg4 Kh8 42. Bxg6 fxg6 43. Qxg6 Qxa4 44. Ne7 1-0.

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