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Vishy Anand starts Linares campaign with a win

Vishwanathan Anand continues to be on a roll.

The Indian grandmaster, who finished joint first, barely three weeks ago, in the Hoogovens grandmasters tournament is back on the circuit, and this time in one of the highest rated tournament ever, at Linares.

Anand was the only player to score a victory on the opening day of the Category 21 tournament, as he defeated Alexy Shirov, the Russian-born who now lives in Spain.

It was a long battle lasting almost five hours and 55 moves, with the Indian playing black.

In the other two games of the day, Garry Kasparov of Russia drew with Peter Svidler, also of Russia, while Vladimir Kramnik drew with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. Vasselin Topalov of Bulgaria had a bye.

This tournament, coming close on the heels of the meet in Wijk Aan Zee, where Kramnik and Anand shared the top prize, has seven of the leading players of the world.

The tournament, run by world famous chess promoter Luis Rentero, who not only conducts the tournament but also hosts the players at his own Hotel Anibal in this city. The notable absentee in this gathering is Anatoly Karpov, who Rentero refused to invite because the world champion withdrew at the last minute in 1997.

Anand with black played the Caro-Kann defence, which he has often used at top level tournaments. For most part, till the middle game, the clash looked like going the way of the other two, that is, a draw. But Anand, who these days does not play as fast as he did a few years ago, looked like he had some plan up his sleeve.

Shirov, who recently held Anand to a draw in the last round ofthe Hoogovens tournament in Holland, started lapsing into errors as the game went into a major pieces endgame with both sides having rooks and the queen. Shirov lost his twin rooks for the queen, and the white pawns looked very weak. Anand with his rooks looking menacing, played havoc and went on to win in 55 moves.

The last time the two clashed, the Indian with white had used the Ruy Lopez, but Shirov managed to hold out for a draw.

Kasparov is quite easily the most rested player in the field, and is appearing in his first tournament of the year, while Anand has already played the world championship final and Hoogovens in the past seven weeks.

Kasparov never looked in any trouble, in a defensive game playing Sicilian with the black pieces. Interestingly Kasparov, who is the defending champion here, had lost to Svidler in their last clash in Tilburg in 1997.

Kramnik, who claims that he and Anand are the rightful claimants to the position of being challengers to Kasparov's title as the best player in the world, had white against Ivanchuk. The game was a Queen's Gambit declined and ended in a draw.

In the second round, Anand will have white pieces against Svidler, while Kasparov has a bye. In the other games, Ivanchuk meets Shirov and Topalov begins his campaign against Kramnik.