Anand outplays Cebalo, cruises into round of 16

Anand will play Joel Lautier with the black pieces in the first game of the next round. Joel Lautier beat Vladimir Epishim 2-0.

Another Indian, Krishnan Sasikiran lost in the round of 32 to Mikhail Gurevich 0.5-1.5.

Sasikiran lost in a rook and minor piece ending in 47 moves with the black pieces and had to agree for a draw in 70 moves with white.

In the first of his two-game match with Cebalo, Anand won two pawns after the opening with black pieces. Cebalo then blundered a rook on the 23rd move and it cost him a rook for bishop. Anand made no mistake and won easily.

In the next game, Anand seemed content with a draw even though he was in a winning position.

Earlier in the long drawn out qualifier, Anand scored a total of 6.5 out of the possible nine with four wins and five draws.

In the other matches, Alexander Grischuk beat Teimiur Radjabov 4-2 after two sets of game were tied. Anatoly Karpov beat Loek van Wely 1.5-0.5, Veselin Topalov outplayed Alexander Motylev 2-0.