Good news for Teheran as Gelfand bows out

Alexander Grischuk is the surprise packet of the championship. But then he got a good draw too as he had Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia in the Round of 16. Ehlvest, who has had a dream run beating Ivanchuk, used the Sicilian in the first game and succeeding in taking the game to a rook ending with a pawn down position. However, Grishchuk had a passed pawn on the Queenside which won him the point after 67 moves. The second game was also well fought in a rook and pawn ending from a Queens Gambit Declined. Though this time Ehlvest had an extra pawn, the game was a dead draw after 65 moves.

Shirov struck with white in the first game in Sicilianin 26 moves against Gelfand, who sacrificed his Queen for rook and minor piece. Shirov’s Queen, then, trapped one of Gelfand’s pieces after 32 moves.

Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria overcame rapid and blitz specialist Alexie Dreev of Russia 3-1 after the second tie-breaker series of 15-minutes. In the 25-minute series Topalov struck with white against Caro-Kann in 36 moves after winning a piece through a fork but Dreev came back into the match with a 46-move win in Kings Indian defence. The second series was a washout for Dreev as Topalov won 2-0.

World Cup finalist Bareev drew his first game against veteran Boris Gulko of USA in a rook and pawn ending of English Opening. Bareev struck with white in the second game in Nimzo-Indian Defence. Bareev’s rook trapped one of Gulko’s pieces in the back rank.

In the women’s section, Qin Kanying of China will meeet Alisa Maric of Yugoslavia in the the semifinals. Qin was in great form as she routed Corina Peptan of Romania 2-0 in the first set of tie-breakers while Alisa Maric got a similar result against Almira Skripchenko-Lautier of Moldova.

Xie Jun will take on Kovalevskaya of Russia in the other semifinal. The quarterfinal line-up: Viswanathan Anand vs Alexander Khalifman (Anand to play with white in the first game); Alexander Grischuk (Russia) vs Vladislav Tkachiev (France); Michael Adams (England) vs Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria); Evgeny Bareev (Russia) vs Alexie Shirov (Spain). Results: Open (4th round, tie-break): Adams (Eng) bt P Svidler (Rus) 1.5-0.5; Topalov (Bul) bt A Dreev (Rus) 3-1; Shirov (Spain) bt Gelfand (Israel) 1.5-0.5; Grischuk (Russia) bt J Ehlvest (Est) 1.5-0.5; E Bareev (Rus) bt B Gulko (USA) 1.5-0.5

Women (QF tie-break): Qin Kanying (Chn) bt Peptan (Rom) 2-0; A Maric (Yug) bt A Skripchenko (Mda) 2-0

AICF protests against KBC

New Delhi:The All India Chess Federation (AICF) has protested against a controversial question related to chess and answer in the `Kaun BanegaCrorepati’ programme in the Star Network on Thursday. The question was: Who is the world chess champion and the correct answer was acknowledged asVladimir Kramnik. Curiously, among the names given as choices world champion Alexander Khalifman was not there at all.

AICF secretary PT Ummer Koya, as organising secretary of the ongoing World Championship and the vice-presidnt of FIDE, the world’s governing body, wrote to the TV channel that the answer was a direct insult to India as the `real’ World Championship was going on and Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was one of the favourites. (ENS)