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August 2, 1999
NEWS
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Barua loses game two, sets up tie-breakerPaul Eriksen in Las Vegas Alexander Khalifman showed just why he was once so feared on the Russian chess scene. The former three-time Russian champion came back from the brink to draw level with Dibyendu Barua, as the Indian was put on the run in a long, 69-move game that saw the white triumph in the second game of the first round of the FIDE World Chess Championships at Caesar's Palace here in Las Vegas. The game was Queen's gambit, after the Russian stalwart, with a good record of comebacks, drew Barua away from the Semi-Slav option. Despite equal material, Barua's weak pawn structure resulted in a decisive advantage for Khalifman. After losing the d5 pawn on the 29th move, Barua was further pushed back by Khalifman's pawn movements in the centre. An exchange of queens and rooks followed, and with Barua having a bishop for Khalifman's more active knight, things were bleak for the Indian as the game went into another marathon. They played 60 moves the previous day and it went beyond this time. Khalifman inched towards queening the vital pawn and the inevitable resignation arrived after 67 moves. The result left the two players alevel at 1-1, and they will now play a two-game tie-break with each game of 25 minutes. A further tie would mean a second set of even shorter games - of 15 minutes each - and then yet another tie will see a sudden-death, where White starts and gets four minutes and black five minutes for all moves plus 10 seconds inceremental time for each move. The last resort will be a single game sudden-death, where white must win for even a draw will give the match to black. The winner of the Barua-Khalifman tie will clash with Kamsky in the second round. Khalifman's was not the only bounce-back story of the day. Vlastimil Babula turned tables on young Tal Shaked, while the Briton Tony Miles, reversed his first game loss against Ralf Akesson. Sergey Dolmatoc, who was shocked by his loss to little-known Pavel Kotsur, found his form in time. High profile wins included former World junior champion Joel Lautier, who won both his games against Watu Kobese, and Ulf Andersson, who squeezed a win from a drawn first game and then outplayed Mohammed Nagib in the second. Other expected winners included Ivan Sokolov and Jan Ehlvest. There are still 12 matches to played out and that includes Milov's round one first game.
Summary:
Major upsets: Nick De Firmian losing to Mihail Kobalija; Utut Adianto going down to Daniel Fridman. Comfortable winners: Joel Lautier, Ivan Sokolov, Jan Ehlvest. Even easier winners: Hamdouchi and Leitao, as they won by default Vadim Milov, the subject of many a discussion in Las Vegas, even as he played another tournament in hometown Biel, was perhaps the most relieved man. After forfeiting the first game to Bartlomiej Macieja, he arrived in time for the second game, which won. Then he also got the good news that his first round forfeiture had been reversed and the players will now play the second game of the two-game mini-match on the day when other tied players will figure in the tie-breakers on Monday.
Results in brief:
Incomplete match Macieja, Bartlomiej - Milov, Vadim --- 0-1 Game one will be played on Monday local time
Completed matches:
Chiburdanidze, Maya - Akopian, Vladimir * 0-1 ½
Akopian moves up
Default wins:
Game 2 A Khalifman (2628) v D Barua (2550)
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