Kochi, January 2: Viswanathan Anand of India and Anatoly Karpov of Russia renewed their battle in the Slav Defence after a long time in Game One of the World Chess Championship final at Lausanne today, according to reports reaching here.Anand, playing black, took recourse to a safety-first tactic as he employed the Slav Defence, the opening which he consistently used against Karpov when they first met in a match under the Fide umbrella in Brussels six years ago.This suggested there will be almost a repeat of the same opening struggles in Lausanne too as Karpov with black might just depend on the Caro-Kann, which had stood him in good stead in Brussels, though he lived dangerously there in some games. In this game at Lausanne, Karpov revealed a part of his preparation when he sacrificed his knight for three pawns on the Queenside between moves 17 and 21.Anand kept the extra piece and had to guard white's two Queenside and the central pawns which did not look menacing after move 25. The position after 25 moves was: Karpov had Queen, rooks, bishop and five pawns to Anand's Queen, rooks, knights and two pawns.Karpov played brilliantly around the first time control and won back the piece to get solid advantage in a combination. The endgame of Karpov keeping rooks versus Anand's Queen with the Russian having two extra pawns was tilted heavily in favour of Karpov unless the Indian finds perpetual checks.
