The Hindu : Sasikiran stuns Anand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 12, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Sasikiran stuns Anand

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

K. Sasikiran of India watches compatriot V. Anand's next move in the World Cup chess tournament on Friday. Sasikiran surprised the defending champion. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD OCT. 11. He may have struggled to find words to describe his fabulous win over defending champion, Viswanathan Anand. But, that was quite understandable as Krishnan Sasikiran achieved that stunning feat in his very first encounter against the famed opponent in the second round game of the second World Cup chess championship being held in Ramoji Film City.

For quite some time, Sasikiran was widely tipped to be successor to the acknowledged maestro. But importantly, the youngster from Chennai chose the most famous stage — World Cup — to take one giant leap into the `elite' circuit.

In a game which began in London System, Sasikiran's c4 on queenside ensured that it took a complex turn. Soon, he followed it up with his d4 on the 15th move which should have surprised Anand, for it expanded the centre for Sasikiran. Though Anand, the former World Champion, sacked a pawn on 18th move (e5) to create space for his pieces, his young brilliant opponent was equal to the task with an amazing move — e6. This really put Anand in a spot and even had a badly placed bishop on g6.Anand then tried to challenge with his d5 to attack Sasikiran's queen. In a clever manoeuvre, the youngster instead of moving the queen to safety offered it by capturing a pawn on `a' file which left all of his pieces in control.

And to Sasikiran's delight, Anand made the cardinal error of playing Rd8 on the 33rd move after which he never really recovered and the next move Ra1 x a4 virtually sealed his fate to let Sasikiran record his first ever win over a Grandmaster with 2700-plus rating after 53 moves.

"I just didn't give too much thought to the prospect of playing someone who is a hero of sorts for all of us (Indian players)," Sasikiran said in a post-game briefing. "It is really great," he said with great difficulty. The other major upset of the day came from another young Indian Surya Sekhar Ganguly who outwitted second-seeded Alexander Morozevich of Russia. Apparently peeved at missing what he strongly felt was a winning chance against Alexander Beliavsky in the first round, the Bengal boy made adequate amends and was in his element today.

By playing the Ruy Lopen variation only for the second time in his career, he maintained a slight edge throughout. That he was in control was pretty obvious from the way Morozoveich fell into the trap (R x c6) after which it was all over.

"I was surprised that a player of his calibre couldn't spot it. Anyhow, I am happy," he remarked. India's youngest Grandmaster, Pentyala Harikrishna, suffered his second straight defeat losing to Alexander Beliavsky of Slovenia in Queen's Indian Defence. The Andhra boy felt that he made yet another mistake (Rf5), instead of playing Re3, a move that virtually saw him out of the contest.

With this defeat, Harikrishna's chances of making it to the knock-out phase look very remote as he had to win all the three remaining games to advance to the next phase.

In the women's section, World junior champion, Koneru Humpy, with black pieces, recorded her second straight win by outplaying Stepovaia Dianchenko of Russia and be in contention for a berth in the knock-out phase.

The Bank of Baroda sponsored girl preferred the rarely employed Petroff Defence. After an unclear middle-game, Humpy seized on the chance offered by her opponent who faltered playing g4 on the 31st move with an intention to attack Humpy's kingside.

However, the Indian girl came up with a brilliant counter-play by sacrificing her bishop to gain an exchange and complicate the position further for the opponent who had no option but to resign ultimately after 39 moves.

Vescovi Giovanni of Brazil, earned a creditable draw with black pieces against one of the strong contenders Vassily Ivanchuk. The Brazilian was surprised by the Scotch opening his rival opted but quickly saw to that the game deviated into the lesser known lines.

In a battle which did see Vescovi consume a lot of time where he also saw his dangerous king pushed to safety, he was pleasantly surprised by the draw offer from Ivanchuk which he gladly accepted after 50 moves. He felt that a draw against a Grandmaster who beat Garry Kasparov twice recently should be rated a very good result.

The results:

Men: Group A: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1 drew with Vescovi Giovanni (Brazil) 1.5; Iuldachev Saidali (Uzb) 0.5 lost to Malakho Vladimir (Rus) 1; Ye Jiangchuan (Chn) 1 drew with Macieja Bartilomiej (Poland) 1.

Group B: Radjabov Teimour (Azr) 1.5 bt Kobese Watu (RSA) 1; Alexander Dreev (Rus) 1 drew with Alex Yermolinsky (USA) 0.5; Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) 0.5 lost to Rublevsky Sergei (Rus) 1.5.

Group C: K. Sasikiran (Ind) 2 bt V. Anand (Ind) 0.5; Kasimdzhanov Rustam (Uzb) 1.5 bt Xu Jun (Chn) 0.5; Al Modiahki (Qat) 1 bt Hamdouch Hichem (Mar) 0.5.

Group D: G. Alexander Beliavsky (Slo) 2 bt P. Harikrishna (Ind) 0; D. Nigel Short (Eng) 1 drew with Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia) 1.5; S.S. Sekhar Ganguly (Ind) 1 bt Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 0.5.

Women: Group A: Viktoija Cmilyte (Ltu) 0.5 drew with Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) 1; D. Harika (Ind) 0 lost to Matveea Svetlana (Rus) 1.5; Li Ruofan (Chn) 1.5 drew with Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus) 0.5.

Group B: Juhua Xu (Chn) 0.5 drew with Nino Khurtsidze (Geo) 0.5; Pia Cramling (Swe) 1.5 bt Swati Ghate (Ind) 1; Antonoia Stefanova (Bul) 2 bt S. Vijayalakshmi (Ind) 0.5.

Group C: Kosteniuk Alexandra (Rus) 1 drew with Irina Krush (U.S.) 0.5; Nana Iosliani (Geo) 1 bt Bhagyashree Thipsay (Ind) 0; Stepovaia Dianocheako (Rus) 0.5 lost to K. Humpy (Ind) 2.

Group D: Peng Zhaoqin (Ned) 1 bt Dworakowska Joanna (Pol) 1; S. Meenakshi (Ind) 1.5 drew with Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) 0.5; Wang Pin (Chn) 1.5 drew with Zhu Chen (Chn) 0.5.

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