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Nisipeanu forces a tie-breaker

Paul Eriksen in Las Vegas

The meek shall inherit the earth may well be the credo of the ongoing World Chss Championships in a city where the gambler is king.

The 23-year-old Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu from Romania, who given his ranking of over 100 was not givn a chance to go past the second or third round, provided yet another twist, when he recovered from a loss to level his semi-final match against Alexander Khalifman. The win for the Romanian Grandmaster, in the fourth and last game of their semi-final match, sent the the clash into the tie-breaker.

Grandmaster Vladimir Akopian of Armenia had entered the final yesterday, with a convincing win over GM Michael Adams of England in the other semi-final.

Khalifman and Nisipeanu will now go through a set of tie-breakers to decide who goes through to the final. The first set of two games will be played with both the players getting 25 minutes to play the entire game. In case of a tie, the time limit will be reduced to 15 minutes each.

Nisipeanu, ridiculed as a tourist by none less than Garry Kasparov, may yet have the last laugh, as Khalifman is bound to be under tremendous pressure after he seemed to be on his way to the final after taking the lead with a win in the third game. In that game, Nisipeanu had looked an average GM, which is what his rating of about 2540 suggests. Khalifman is No. 45 in the world, while Nisipeanu is over 100.

Nisipeanu, faced with a must-win situation, opened with a relatively easy-to-handle Scotch game. But in retrospect, it was the same opening which he had used against Vassily Ivanchuk during his sensational win earlier in the tournament. And if there were any in the spectators gallery who thought lightning does not strike at the same place twice, Nisipanu surprised them this time.

The game went slowly along expected lines and Nisipeanu showed great maturity in handling a tense situation in so composed a manner. Khalifman was careful not to mak any extravagant moves. Ironically, it was Nisipeanu who made a small mistake which allowed Khalifman to equalise.

At that stage, the semi-final seemed as good as over. But, uncharacteristically, Khalifman too seemed to relax and played passively. It allowed Nisipeanu to claw back into advantage by the 37th move. Then came a blunder from Khalifman and Nisipeanu grabbed the chance. He completed his win in 59 moves and sent the mtch into a tie-breaker. Sure, Khalifman must have regretted relaxing at the wrong moment.

If it turns out to be an Akopian-Nisipaeanu final, as it just might, it will leave a lot of qustions on the very credibility of the World Championships. But Khalifman, a player of repute, could still give some credibility to the championships with a win in th tie-breaker and the final.