Anand shocked

Viswanthan Anand8217;s quest for a hat-trick at the Chess Classic of Mainz suffered a setback as he began his eight-game match against Judit Polgar with a loss in the opening game. The Indian ace, who is the defending champion, lost the first game in 49 moves from a Sicilian Najdorf opening. Anand played with black as Polgar opted for her favourite e4 opening. In the game that went into the Najdorf variation, Polgar seemed to have got the upper hand in the middle. She got a minor piece, which she gave back. But in the bargain she set up two dangerous advanced pawns on c and d files. That had Anand fighting with his back to the wall.

Though her time was running out, Polgar kept her calm and with all the major pieces off the board, the Hungarian, whom Anand once called as the 8216;old fox8217; kept the pressure up and the d-pawn did the trick. Anand resigned on the 49th move to give Polgar a 1-0 lead in the match. In 2001 Anand had come back from a defeat against Vladimir Kramnik and then gone on to win in the tie-breaker. It now remains to be seen whether the Indian ace can do the same and wriggle back from the opening loss.

The second game will start half an hour after the first game.