| WIJK
AAN ZEE, January 14: Viswanathan Aanand started his campaign
for a sixth Corus Grandmasters chess title with a draw against
former Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukriane. Anand, who won the World
title in 2000, a year before Ponomariov, had black.
In Group C competition, India’s Parimarjan Negi (13
yeras) and China’s Hou Yifan (12) won their games. While
Negi beat Wouter Spoelman emphatically with white pieces,
the Chinese girl beat here rival N Kosintseva with black.
Negi needed just 27 moves for his fine win.
The NIIT-sponsored Anand quickly got equality in a Catalan
with a thematic Queen and Bishop battery on the h1-a8 diagonal.
That helped him neutralise Pono’s e3-e4 advance. In
the final position, Anand agreed to the draw when he saw he
had no possibilities. The game was just 22 moves old.
The only decisive match of the day came from Teimour Radjabov.
He beat Loek Van Wely in the classical King's Indian, which
is the latter’s speciality. It was the same line in
which he beat Radjabov at the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk
a year ago. This time the 19-year-old Azerbaijani had his
revenge in 40 moves, the longest any game went in a Group
A match.
Vladimir Kramnik had no problems either as black against Sergey
Karjakin and after many trades and a lot of manoeuvring in
the double rook and one minor piece endgame, peace was declared.
The game was a Petroff’s defence and lasted 33 moves.
Anand will now meet Alexander Motylev making his debut in
the A group. Motylev got off to a great start when he defended
and earned a draw with black against last year’s joint-winner,
Veselin Topalov. The Bulgarian was a little docile and unlike
his usual aggressive self in the Slav defence which went upto
26 moves.
In group C, Negi will next meet Stellan Brynell and the Indian
will have black pieces.
The three Grandmaster tournaments have 14 players each and
are round robins (each competitor plays against every other).
Results: Round 1: Karjakin drew with Kramnik; Navara drew
with Aronian; Ponomariov drew with Anand; Shirov drew with
Svidler; Tiviakov drew with Carlsen; Topalov drew with Motylev;
Van Wely lost to Radjabov
Pairings for Round: Motylev v Anand; Aronian v Ponomariov;
Carlsen v Navara; Svidler v Tiviakov; Kramnik v Shirov; Radjabov
v Karjakin; Topalov v Van Wely
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