Anand advances to final; plays Shirov

Leon, June 4: Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand stormed into the final of the Advance chess tournament with a hard-fought 2.5-1.5 victory over...

Leon, June 4: Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand stormed into the final of the Advance chess tournament with a hard-fought 2.5-1.5 victory over world’s top woman Judit Polgar of Hungary on Saturday. Bidding to revive his form which has touched a low this year, Anand drew both the rapid games and then defeated Polgar in the second blitz game to set up final against Spaniard Alexei Shirov.

One of the best users of computers among competitive players, world number two Anand was stretched to 60 moves in the opening Rapid game before the two agreed for a truce. Anand, with white pieces, started the game well, opting for less used `5C3′ variation against the Sicilian Paulsen and gained space advantage in the middlegame. Polgar’s counter-attack was repulsed by Anand when on the seventh move he put his knight enprise in the centre. What followed was a magnificent attack but with clock ticking away, Anand squandered the advantage in the ensuing rook and pawn endgame despite a two-pawn advantage.

With players allowed to refer to chess databases in rapid games, Anand quickly changed his gameplan and forced a draw in the next with black pieces.Anand employed the Sicilian Nazdorf but the game transposed into the main variation of the Sicilian Scheveningen. After the opening, Anand equalised easily with a fine pawn sacrifice in the centre and steered the game to a draw in just 25 moves and take the match into tie-break where two blitz games were to be played. The first blitz game was drawn as Polgar could not make headaway in the Rubinstein Variation of the French defence and settled for draw in an opposite colour bishop endgame.

Story continues below this ad

Anand opened with the queen pawn and faced the Kings Indian defence with white pieces in the decider. In the classical variation, Polgar adopted the positional set up and allowed a slight advantage to Anand.

After routine manoeuvring, Polgar went for the queen exchange that left her `D’ pawn isolated in a copy book fashion. Anand won the pawn with precise piece manoeuvres and recorded a smooth victory after 68 moves.