Spanish shocker for Anand

Anand made a positional blunder immediately and was saddled with a passive position thereon.

Instead of his 31.Ra2, Anand believed that 31.Ra4 followed by Rc4 and Qf4 would have offered good chances. But it was not to be as the resulting position forced the game into a rook and opposite colour bishop endgame where Shirov had material advantage in the shape of a pawn.

Further counter-attacking attempts of Anand were thwarted with ease and Shirov went on to score the win after 41 moves. The Petroff defence seems to be the tournament favourite here.

In the Kramnik-Kasparov match, the former equalised easily in the opening against Kasparov who, it seems, would revert to queen pawn openings in future games with white pieces.

FIDE world champion Alexander Khalifman of Russia held GM Peter Leko of Hungary to a draw with black pieces. Kalifman employed the Lillinthal variation of French defence and the game moved between equal and slightly better positions for white for the major part.

Khalifman exchanged pieces at regular intervals and sacrificed a pawn in the rook and pawn ending to steer the game to a draw after 39 moves.

The Moves

Anand vs Shirov
1. c4 e5, 2. Nf3 Nf6, 3. Nxe5 d6, 4. Nf3 Nxc4, 5. d4 d5, 6. Bd3 Bd6, 7. O-O O-O, 8. c4 c6, 9. cxd5 cxd5, 10. Nc3 Nxe3, 11. bxc3 Bg4, 12. Rb1 Nd7, 13. h3 Bh5, 14. Rb5 Nb6, 15. c4 bxf3, 16. Qxf3 dxe4, 17. Bc2 Qd7, 18. a4 g6, 19. Bc3 Rac8, 20. Rfb1 c3, 21. a5 Nc4, 22. Rxb7 Qe6, 23. Ra1 Bb8, 24. Bb3 Qd6, 25. g3 Nxe3, 26. Bxf7+ Kh8, 27. Qxe3 Qf6, 28. Be6 Rce8, 29. d5 Be5, 30. Ra2 Bd4, 31. Qe1 Qf3, 32. Kh2 Qxd4, 33. Bxd5 Rxe1, 34. Kg2 bxf2, 35. Rf7 Rxf7, 36. bxf7 Bc5, 37. Bb3 Kg7, 38. Rc2 Bd4, 39. a6 Kf6, 40. Ra2 Ke5, 41. h4 Ke4. 0-1.