Anand wins special TV match

World chess champion Vishwanathan Anand of India drew a special ''Made for TV'' match against Hungarian Peter Leko in a one-game live show on the German television channel WDR in Cologne.

Since Anand was playing with black, he was adjudged the winner.

According to the special rules for this one-game match, played on Sunday night, black is adjudged the winner in case of a draw.

The match was preceded by an interesting ritual of drawing colours by lots.

Anand, a brand ambassador for the Indian ITt company NIIT, played with black pieces and the game ended in a draw in 34 moves, with equal material on both sides.

The success was a small consolation for the Indian superstar, who did not let the disappointment of his disastrous tournament in Dortmund last month cloud his moves and played an interesting game against Leko.

In the game, after a Sicilian opening, which went into the Najdorf variation, the Hungarian came up with a novelty on the 14th move with his 14. Qe1, to which Anand replied well with 14. C4.

Leko's novelty was a departure from 14. Rfd1, which gave black a win in a game between E Schulke and J Gruenenwald in 1996. It also moved away from 14. Qxd8 (initiating a queen exchange) which saw Murray Chandler winning with white against K Juhnke of Germany in 1983.

Leko continued to attack black's queen but finally Anand took the queen exchange on the 20th move and then followed a series of exchanges which left both with one rook and four pawns in equal situation for a draw in 34 moves.

For the NIIT-sponsored Anand, the match and a two-day rapid event in Villarrobledo over this coming weekend are the only scheduled events before his defence of his FIDE World title, expected to be held later this year.

Two German Grandmasters, Helmut Pfleger and Vlastimil Hort gave live commentary for the match.

The special TV match, which was started in 1983, is an annual event and last year the match was played between Vladimir Kramnik and Leko.

Kramnik had won the game with white pieces, but was unavailable to defend the ''WDR TV title'' because of his pre-occupation with the preparation for the high-profile ''Man vs Machine'' match against Deep Fritz, scheduled to be held in Bahrain in October.

Anand has figured in similar TV matches in Cologne twice before.

In 1995 he had black pieces but still beat Jeroen Piket of The Netherlands and the following year he drew with white against Vladimir Kramnik. The draw with white meant Kramnik (black) was adjudged the winner.

Anand replaced last year's winner, Kramnik, while Leko, who is hugely popular in Germany, retained his place despite the loss to Kramnik last year.

UNI