Impasse at the superpower summit

Anand and Kasparov met each other in Ruy Lopez. While Kasparov took time to come out of the opening, Anand was his usual self getting considerable lead on the clock after 12 moves. The Russian seemed to have got a slight edge out of the opening. But the Russian had a weak Queen-rook pawn and a bad bishop to hide. He won a pawn on move 18 though Anand had enough compensation for it.Kasparov tried some tricks by giving his Queen for rook and knight. In the end Anand threatened mate after 37 moves and Kasparov had to resort to perpetual to come out of it.

Alexander Mozozevich crushed Dutch GM Loek van Wely, who touched 2,700 on the Elo scale this year.

Employing the Slav Defence, Morozevich combined his pieces effectively to expose the white King and won material in 19 moves.

In another game, Sergei Tiviakov of Russia earned a draw against Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in 22 moves of Ruy Lopez.

India’s P.Harikrishna (Elo 2514) started his campaign in Group B on a satisfactory note with a 17-move draw against GM Thomas Luther of Germany in the first round, which commenced today.

Rated 30 points below the German, Harikrishna played cautiously and weathered the Slav Defence after two and half hours. In the rook and knight ending, the players had symmetrical pawn structure at the time of draw.