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Anand has a date with Polgar in August

By Our Chess Correspondent

Chennai APRIL 15. World Cup champion Viswanathan Anand will defend his Mainz Chess Classic title against the queen of world chess — Judit Polgar of Hungary — from August 14 to 17 this year. This announcement was made by Hans Walter Schmitt of Frankfurt West Chess Club through a press release on Tuesday.

In another match to be held simultaneously, Peter Leko of Hungary and Russia's Peter Svidler will clash in a Chess960 match where start positions of the board will be interchanged on the bottom rank to avoid using chess theory and introduce more creativity.

Mainz Chess Classic is the Mecca of rapid chess and Anand has been the dominant player in the series, winning many titles. In 2000, he won the rapid tournament, featuring the world's top six, by a big margin. And in 2001, in the `duel between world champions,' Anand beat Vladimir Kramnik to keep his title.

Last year, he held his bastion, beating world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. Now the organisers have found Anand a new competitor in Judit Polgar.

Anand, 33, has been the best player in the world this year, winning three titles in four events. He will clash with Polgar in an eight-game match, which is likely to be followed keenly. Polgar is known to be a shrewd tactician and her game has become stronger over the past few months.

Polgar, 26, stormed into the 2700-rating club and got reinstated among the world's top-10 on April 1 in the quarterly FIDE-rating list.

She finished second to Anand in the Corus chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee and in an ongoing Honguest Hotels super category tournament at Budapest, she is leading a 10-player field with 3.5 points from four games.

Polgar is a unique sportswoman as she's the only lady in any sport to be ranked in the top-10 of the men's ranking. She has also been the highest-ranked woman in the world since 1989.

Mainz Classic is a special summer event attracting Germans and fans from other nations to watch rapid chess.

There are various other sideshows, including the open rapid (prizemoney of 30,000 euros) tournament, to be played alongside the main event.

Anand competes in the Chess Meeting at Dortmund in Germany from July 31 to August 11 before going into the rapid chess match against Polgar.

The Dortmund field is complete with Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko, Teimour Radjabov, Viktor Bologan (winner of Aeroflot Open) and Arkady Naiditch (Dortmund player). The tourney will be held on a double round-robin format.

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