Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Top seed Gary Kasparov of Russia and former world champion Viswanathan Anand made it to the pre-quarters in the Eurotel knockout tournament here by outclassing GM Gilberto Milos of Brazil and GM Jan Timman of Netherlands respectively.
Braingames match-winner Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik of Russia crashed through the defences of GM Zybnek Hracek of Czech Republic in his first outing.
Former world champion Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grishchuk and Peter Svidler were the other Russian GMs sealing their places in the second round while Latvian-born Spaniard Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria had to sweat it out in tough encounters to proceed to the last 16 places in the 32 players 500,000 Euros event.
Kramnik did not show any signs of missing competitive chess for a long time and simply outplayed Hracek in both the games. Playing white in the first game, Hracek ventured into less trodden paths of the Ruy Lopez opening and met Kramnik’s simple and effective moves that ensured ample piece play for the second player.
It was in the early middle game itself that Hracek fumbled to allow the invasion of Kramnik’s pieces that proved fatal. In trying to find some counter play, Hracek lost control and resigned in just 23 moves.
In the second game, Hracek could not do much with his black pieces after employing the queens Indian Defence. Kramnik, needing just a draw with the favourable colour, concentrated on routine development and exerted pressure on the kingside to get a desirable advantage.
