Rapid king Anand faces tough task

By now, Indians are tired of giving the ‘favourite’ tag to Viswanathan Anand in rapid chess. The world knows that the former World...

By now, Indians are tired of giving the ‘favourite’ tag to Viswanathan Anand in rapid chess. The world knows that the former World champion is anybody’s favourite in speed chess but Anand has often succumbed in crucial rapid encounters, the two striking cases being his 0-2 losses to Gata Kamsky and Anatoly Karpov in the Fide quarterfinals and final respectively.

When the Indian Super Grandmaster meets current World champion Ruslan Ponomriov of Ukraine in an eight-game match World champions’ like to be called the favourite for a different reason: he has won the last two Battles of Mainz and so should have the edge based on his success there.

Anand himself acknowledged the fact that he felt comfortable with his success rate at the Chess Classic in Mainz rather than his projected strength in rapid chess. He reckoned Kasparov, Kramnik and Ivanchuk as frontrunners in rapid chess along with himself but added. ‘‘With respect to the Chess Classic, I am the most successful player.’’

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	Mainz Schedule
* Aug 16: Anand vs Ponomariov; Kosteniuk vs Paehtz (Games 1,2,3) * Aug 17: Anand vs onomariov; Kosteniuk vs Paehtz (Games 4,5,6) * Aug 18: Anand vs Ponomariov; Kosteniuk vs Paehtz (Games 7,8)

The Mainz Chess Classic, which features a prominent match between two very strong players along with its usual open, has probably the same appeal as the blindfold/rapid series in Monte Carlo. This year’s Mainz potpourri has another popular match played alongside the main event. Billed as ‘The Duel of Graces’, the two young ladies of world chess, 18-year-old Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia and 17-year-old Elizabeth Paehtz of Germany, will meet in an eight-game match to be played concurrently with the ‘Duel of the World champions’.

Kosteniuk has attracted the attention of cameras wherever she played because of her dress and hairdo. Paehtz believes make-up can change any woman into a beautiful dame and so there is nothing special about the appearance of her rival in the upcoming series. If reports are to be believed, the German plans to go to a hairdresser before the match every day in an attempt to look better than Kosteniuk off the board, if not over it.

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