Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Viswanathan Anand cruised into the last 16 stage of the seventh Corsica Masters chess tournament in Bastia, France, according to information reaching here.
The world rapid chess champion took a step towards adding one more title to his cupboard when he outplayed Croatian Grandmaster Miso Cebalo 1.5-0.5 in the round of 32. Anand, who has won this title for past three years, is seeking to make it four in a row.
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.
