Anand loses first game in 9 months

World chess champion Viswanathan Anand lost his first game in nine months as he squandered his win in the rapid game to draw 1-1 with Grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic of Yugoslavia in the second round of the tenth Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Monte Carlo.

Anand took the rapid game comfortably, but the Yugoslav displayed tactical brilliance in the blindfold to square the tie.

Anand now has 2.5 points from two rounds, each of which consists of one rapid and one blindfold game.

GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and GM Peter Leko of Hungary share the lead with 3.5 points each, followed by Braingames champion GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia with 3 points.

Playing black in the rapid game, Anand showed immense character and superior positional understanding to outclass Ljubojevic in a semi-Slav defence.

The game featured the established theoretical manoeuvres and Ljubojevic was the first to deviate. Anand allowed his opponent to seize the bishop pair advantage in a semi-open position and launched an attack against the weakened kingside with the aid of his two knights.

Ljubojevic came under pressure and wrongly sensed some advantage with his passed queen bishop pawn. That spelt his doom. Anand invaded his opponent's territory with his queen to force a checkmate.

The blindfold game saw Ljubojevic at his tactical best from the black side of a Sicilian Scheveningen defence. Anand played a relatively less played variation and had to pay the price for his over-ambition in the middle game.

Experts opined that Anand's eighteenth move turned out to be an error as Ljubojevic got control of the centre with his bishops menacingly placed. The ensuing complications favoured the Yugoslav and Anand had to call it a day after 25 moves, giving Ljubojevic a big victory.

Topalov was a picture of perfection in the rapid game against Spain's Alexei Shirov. In a Ruy Lopez opening, where Topalov had the advantage of white pieces, a new idea on the ninth move surprised Shirov and he could not come up with good replies in his allotted time.

Topalov opened the centre and though both queens were off the board, his attack soon became irresistible. A last-ditch tactical effort by Shirov only cost him a piece and the game was over after only 24 moves.

In the blindfold too, Topalov played imaginatively in his favourite Sicilian Dragon defence with black pieces.

Shirov's plan of deviating from the main lines did not help his cause as Topalov appeared well armed. By the twentieth move Shirov was under tremendous pressure and was back in business only after Topalov missed a simple winning move on his twenty-third turn.

The fortunes of both players kept fluctuating and the game ultimately ended in a draw, giving Topalov a match score of 1.5-0.5.

Peter Leko outplayed former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the rapid game and drew the blindfold to win the match 1.5-0.5.

The advance variation of Caro Kann is giving Karpov many nightmares these days. After a thorough drubbing at Anand's hands on Sunday, it was Leko's turn to carry on with the opening with a finely crafted piece sacrifice in the middle game.

To find the right defensive moves, Karpov needed more time than he was left with and that proved decisive.

In the second game Leko came up with an ingenious plan and won a pawn. Karpov had to work hard to stay in the game and he just about managed to do so after Leko missed a simple manoeuvre.

Kramnik defeated Dutch GM Loek Van Wely by an identical 1.5-0.5 margin to rise to third position. The rapid game ended in a draw after a tense battle in the queen's gambit declined, but in the blindfold Kramnik stamped his supremacy quite easily.

GM Jeroen Piket of The Netherlands drew with GM Zoltan Almasi of Hungary 1-1 while GM Vassily Ivanchuk of the Ukraine accounted for GM Boris Gelfand of Israel 1.5-0.5.

PTI