Anand in semi-finals

Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand stormed into the semi-finals of the first FIDE World Cup chess tournament with an easy draw against G M Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the second quarter-final game in Shenyang, China, on Saturday.

With the victory, Anand topped the two-game mini match 1.5-- 0.5, to becoming the first player in the championship to cruise into the semis without a single tie-breaker.

In the first game on Friday, he beat Ivanchuk with black pieces.

Anand will now vie for the prize purse of $50,000 as he takes on Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel in the semis. Gelfand scored a hard-fought victory over Chinese GM Ye Jiangchuan.

Anand adopted a business-like approach on the board on Saturday, knowing well that even a draw would help him cross the present hurdle.

He employed the safe Alapin variation to counter the Sicilian defence of Ivanchuk, who was obviously surprised by Anand's choice of opening. By offering to exchange queens on the 10th move, Anand made his intentions clear.

Ivanchuk's idea of deploying highlight square Bishop on a favourable diagonal did not deter the Indian champ from exchanging the queens to get a level position.

A pair of rooks got exchanged on the 20th move and it was a minor piece endgame by the 31st move. Ivanchuk posted his knight in the central square, hoping to complicate the endgame but Anand placed the Bishop in a way that made his position impregnable.

With no way out to level the scores, Ivanchuk was forced to propose a draw after 43 moves.

GM Evgeny Bareev of Russia rose to the occasion and scored a complicated victory over GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia in the classical game and then entered the semi-finals with a 1.5--0.5 whitewash of the Georgian in the tie-break.

In the second of their quarter-final game, Azmaiparashvili proved an age old adage true -- 'It is easier to draw with white when you don't want to!'

Playing with the white pieces Azmaiparashvili had a cautious approach right from the word go in the second classical game, obviously because of his victory with the black pieces yesterday in the first game.

An irregular opening that guaranteed a symmetrical pawn structure, however, did not turn out to be a good choice against an imaginative player like Bareev.

Theoretically, Bareev's 10th move turned out to be a new idea, leaving his king in the semi-closed centre. Azmai got hooked on exchanging pieces and in the process posted his queen knight on the edge of the board.

A tactical knight retreat by Bareev on the 15th turn ensured material advantage. Azmaiparashvili tried to complicate vide a piece sacrifice soon after but precise technical manoeuvres by Bareev netted him the full point.

In the tie-break games Azmaiparashvili appeared disheartened and lost rather tamely.

Chinese GM Ye Jiangchuan got some help initially by the lady luck in the second quarterfinal game against GM Boris Gelfand of Israel but eventually lost the tiebreak to bow out of the tournament.

In the second of their classical chess game, Gelfand outplayed Jiangchuan from the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf but failed to notice a trap that cost him his queen.

However, Gelfand regained his composure in the tiebreaker and vindicated his superior understanding of the game by sailing smoothly into the semi-finals.

Milos got a slight advantage with his pet Sicilian with the black pieces in second game of his mini match with Movsesian who employed the Fianchetto variation.

As the game progressed, Movsesian went for tactical complications with a pawn sacrifice but did not get the desired advantage. Milos remained a pawn plus in the ensuing queen and knight endgame but the game petered out in a draw after 66 moves of exciting chess.

In the tie-break games, Milos showed tremendous strength as a player of the faster version with an easy 2-1 victory.

The line-up for the semi-finals in the women's section was announced without any tie-break games.

Saturday's winners GM Pia Cramling of Sweden proved her critics wrong with a comfortable 1.5--0.5 victory over tournament favourite WGM Zhu Chen of China.

After winning her first game on Saturday, Cramling played a chanceless game in the Slav defence with black pieces. The queens got exchanged early in the opening and Cramling did what was required - to sit and look out for threats and counter them with required measures.