Anand faces Internet qualifier first

World champion Vishwanathan Anand will face International Master Olivier Touzane of France in the first round at the World Chess Championships 2001.

The preliminaries to semi-final rounds of the tournament will be held concurrently with the Women's World Championships, starting November 25 and ending December 11, 2001 at the Palace Meeting Hall, Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, while the eight-round final match will be held from January 3 to January 13, 2002.

Touzane, with an Elo rating of 2382, is one of the eight players who have qualified for the event through the worldwide Internet championship.

Among the other Indians in the event, IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2464) will face GM Alexander Khalifman (2699) of Russia; GM Dibyendu Barua (2499) will face GM Joel Lautier of France; GM P Harikrishna (2522) will face Alexander Beliavsky (2659) of Slovakia and GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2589) will face GM Vereslav Eingorn (2598) of the Ukraine.

Sasikiran qualified through zone 3.1b while Ganguly, Barua and Harikrishna qualifed from the Asian championships.

The runner-up of the last edition, Alexei Shirov of Spain will face Aimen Rizouk of Algeria.

The semi-finalists of the last edition, Michael Adams of England will face Gaetan Sarthou of France while Alexander Grischuk of Russia will face Ghaem Maghami Esam of Iran.

In the women's section, WGM Subbaraman Vijayalakshimi will face WGM Joanna Dworakowska of Poland, while WM Aarthie Ramaswamy will take on WGM Nino Khurtsidze of Georgia. WM Nisha Mohota will face WGM Tatiana Stepovaia-Diachenko of Russia and WM Pallavi Shah will face WGM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria.

A total 128 players in the men's and 64 in women's section will be seen in action at the event.

The men's list comprises the World champion, runner-up and semi-finalists of the previous World championship, the World Junior champion of the previous year, 20 best rated players from the best average of the most current FIDE Rating lists of previous July and January of the current year, 90 qualifiers from the Continental Championships, eight qualifiers through the Internet championship and five nominees of the FIDE president.

In rounds 1 to 5, each match will be played over two games and the winner of a match will be the first player to score 1.5 or more points.

For round 6, each match will be played over four games and the winner of a match will be the first player to score 2.5 or more points. If the scores are level after the regular games, after a new drawing of colours, two tie-break games will be played. The games will be played using the electronic clock, starting with 20 minutes on the clock and the addition of 10 seconds after each move. If the scores are still level after the two tie-break games, then, after a new drawing of colours, two five-minute games will be played with the addition of 10 seconds after each move.

If, the score is still level, the players will play one decisive or sudden-death game. The player, who wins the drawing of lots, may choose the colour. White will receive six minutes, Black five minutes, without any addition. The winner qualifies for the next round. In case of a draw, the player with the black pieces qualifies for the next round.