Anand, Lputian in 19-move draw

New Delhi, December 3: Viswanathan Anand and Smbat Lputian of Armenia played a 19-move draw in the first game in the third round of the Wo...

New Delhi, December 3: Viswanathan Anand and Smbat Lputian of Armenia played a 19-move draw in the first game in the third round of the World Chess Championship on Sunday. Anand said there was nothing to play for in the final position arising out of the Slav Defence and the draw was the obvious result.

Anand will have white in the second game tomorrow. Many games featuring top players ended in short draws as safety-first tactics seemed to be the watchword.

Michael Adams of England was happy with an 18-move draw with Alexander Yermolinsky of USA in the Queens Indian Defence. Alexie Shirov of Spain faced the French Defence against Mikhail Gurevich of Belgium and split the point in 21 moves in a symmetrical position.

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Bartholomew Macieja of Poland, who played eight tiebreak games on Saturday while overcoming teammate Krasenkow, employed the Bogo-Indian Defence againstAlexander Beliavsky of Slovenia and got a creditable draw in 17 moves. The Kasimdzanov-Tkachiev game was drawn in 10 moves of English.

Fide World Cup finalist Evgeny Bareev of Russia was one of the impressive winners today. With Catalan, he put pressure on Aleksej Aleksandrov’s Queenside and won a piece through a trap on move 24. On simplification, the game was over after 31 moves.

Veteran Boris Gulko was also an impressive winner from the black side as he got a commanding position against Azmaiparashvli of Georgia and won in 42 moves after winning solid material. Gelfand beat Piket in 32 moves of Grunfeld Defence while Morozevich of Russia trounced Vladimirov in 49 moves of Petroff Defence.

In the women’s section, world champion Xie Jun of China and Natalya Zhukova of Ukraine drew their games against Elena Zayac of Russia and Xu Yuhua of China respectively. Xie adopted the Kings Indian Defence and took the draw in 22 moves while World Cup winner Yuhua used the Nimzo-Indian Defence and split the point in 35 moves in a minor piece ending.

Results (third round, Game 1)

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Men: Lputian (Armenia) drew with Anand; Yermolinsky (USA) drw with M.Adams (England); Shirov (Spain) drew with Gurevich (Bel); Ehlvest (Est) drew with Movsesian (Czech); Bareev (Rus) bt Aleksandrov (Belarus); Beliavsky (Slo) drew with Macieja (Poland); Kasimdzanov (Uzb) drew with Tkachiev (Fra); Morozevich (Rus) bt Vladimirov (Kaz); BorisGelfand (Israel) bt J Piket (Ned); Grischuk (Rus) bt Serper (USA); Azmaiparashvli (Geo) lost to Boris Gulko (USA).

Women: Elena Zayac (Rus) drew with Xie Jun (Chn); Natalya Zhukova (Ukr) drew with Xu Yuhua (Chn); Corina Peptan (Romania) bt Ioseliani (Geo); Demina (Rus) lost to Peng Z (Ned)