Anand blanks Short 2-0

Vishwanathan Anand, already out of contention for a top finish following a second round defeat, blanked highly rated Grandmaster Nigel Short of England 2-0 in the third round in the inaugural FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament on Friday.

Anand was fighting it out for the 9 to 16 placing after having lost his second round game to Georgian GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili. He will now be battling it out for the 9-12 places.

GM Alexander Grishchuk of Russia outplayed GM Etinne Bacrot of France 2-0 to find himself a berth in the last four stage.

Playing white in the first game, Anand made mincemeat of Short in all departments in his favourite French Winawer.

There were no signs of disappointment at having lost in the previous round, as Anand went about his job in quite an exciting fashion in the middlegame.

Short wrongly assessed his chances in launching a counter offence on the queen side after Anand castled there and was taken to task in one of the most brilliant games of this round.

Handling the game quite clinically, Anand ripped open the king side and squeezed out the defensive resources on the other flank too. Unable to save material on the 29th move, Short resigned.

In the second game too, Anand looked a picture of confidence and employed the Sicilian Nazdorf with black piecn a position akin to the Sicilian Dragon in the middlegame where Anand had a dynamic equality on both flanks. Short lost control rather early in this game and lost in just 17 moves after overlooking a Knight manoeuvre that guaranteed Anand an advantage.

Grishchuk became the first to make it to the semi-finals after scoring two swift victories over Bacrot. In the first game of their encounter Grishchuk surprised in the opening by choosing the Tarrasch defence and Bacrot found himself inadequately prepared in one of the side variations.

In the ensuing tactical complications, Bacrot lost a pawn and never recovered after that. The game lasted 35 moves.

The second game was a Modern defence where the Russian, playing white, got an early lead in development and managed to create a fatal passed pawn on the queen side to win in just 26 moves.