Anand in semis

Englishman Short Elo rating 2660 took the most direct route with a second straight win over Michal Krasenkov 2645 to win the two-game mini-match 2-0.Krasenkov, a Pole, resigned after the 34th move when Short, playing black and a pawn up at the time, trapped his knight on the h-file in a queen, rook and knight end-game.

But neither of the other two quarter-final matches has yet produced a winner.Russian Alexey Dreev and Belarussian Boris Gelfand took just 15 moves to reach a tame draw in under an hour.

The winner of their rapid-chess tie-breaker series today will meet Anand in the semifinal starting tomorrow.

But Dutchman Loek van Wely and Englisman Michael Adams took rather longer before they agreed to a second draw.

Van Wely threw away several winning chances and gave up the hunt for victory only after 92 moves, holding a knight and pawn to Adams8217; knight.

The survivor of this 97-Grandmaster knockout tourney goes on to challenge Fide world champ Anatoly Karpov in a six-game match starting New Year8217;s Day.