Date:21/01/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/01/21/stories/2003012101712100.htm

Sport - Chess

Anand crushes Ponomariov

By Arvind Aaron

Wijk aan Zee Jan. 20. Mixing his ideas of the past with the present, India's Viswanathan Anand defeated world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the seventh round to stay on top of the 65th Corus chess tournament here on Sunday.

After his third victory, Anand, with 5 points, is in joint lead with Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands.

Ponomariov, in his third career game against Anand, played the Sicilian Kalashnikov variation, a hybrid of the more popular Sveshnikov variation. Anand varied from his own game against Ponomariov at Linares 2002 on move six.

Anand was surprised when Ponomariov took the centre pawn on move 10 and the latter suffered for the rest of the middle-game having to fend off multifarious threats.

Anand's class preparation and ideas on beating the Sicilian stood apart as he decimated the young world champion without giving him any counter-play.

Anand said he followed the third round game between Shirov and Ivanchuk from this tournament. Black's ninth move was the novelty and Anand termed black taking the central pawn as `dangerous'.

By move 16, white had won a rook for bishop and had obtained a winning position by move 20. White made some cautious moves too, like the one on the 22nd turn, but black had no plan and as a result the Indian did not have to hurry with his plan.

When white connected his rooks, black tried a plan to sacrifice a knight and hope for a king side offensive in a queenless middlegame. But Anand hunted the black king with his two rooks and knights working in tandem to force a resignation on move 34.

Van Wely, the Dutch grandmaster, humbled his more famous countryman Jan Timman in a miniature game lasting 24 moves with the white pieces.

The first games to conclude in this round saw Radjabov making a quick 22-move draw with the white pieces against Ivanchuk's Slav defence and Bareev, the defending champion, falling a victim to Shirov's brilliant display.

Finally, a win for Humpy

Meanwhile in Group B, Koneru Humpy finally won a game, beating lower rated Dutch grandmaster Harmen Jonkman in 41 moves with the white pieces. China's Zhang Zhong leads with 6.5 points and seems unstoppable after scoring his sixth straight victory over Arkady Naiditch of Germany in round seven. Humpy now has 2.5 points from seven games.

Completed results (seventh round):

Main event: Alexei Shirov (Esp) 4.5 bt Evgeny Bareev (Rus) 3, Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 5 bt Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 2.5, Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 3 drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 3.5, Loek Van Wely (Ned) 5 bt Jan Timman (Ned) 1.5, Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 4 bt Michal Krasenkow (Pol) 2.5.

Group B: Ian Rogers (Aus) 4 drew with Jonny Hector (Swe) 4, John Van der Wiel (Ned) 2.5 drew with Victoria Cmilyte (Ltu) 1.5, Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) 4 bt Friso Nijboer (Ned) 4.5, Daniel Stellwagen (Ned) 5 drew with Dennis de Vreugt (Ned) 4, Koneru Humpy (Ind) 2.5 bt Harmen Jonkman (Ned) 2, Zhang Zhong (Chn) 6.5 bt Arkady Naiditch (Ger) 4.