Anand storms into semis

India had mixed luck in the second World Cup chess at the Ramoji Film City on Wednesday. Viswanathan Anand advanced to the semifinals after ...

India had mixed luck in the second World Cup chess at the Ramoji Film City on Wednesday. Viswanathan Anand advanced to the semifinals after a few difficulties; Koneru Humpy lost for the first time in the championship to play the tiebreak while S Meenakshi crashed out.

Defending champion Viswanathan Anand defeated Vladimir Malakhov of Russia in the second game of their quarterfinal match to move ahead with 1.5-0.5 score. Local favourite Koneru Humpy lost to Chinese Li Ruofan to tie 1-1 and will have to fight it out in the tie-break to advance to the last four. The defending champion Xu Yuhua ousted S Meenakshi.

Results (Quarterfinals)

MEN: Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) (0) lost to Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 0.5-1.5; Ye Jiangchuan (Chn) (0.5) drew with Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB) (0.5), Kasimdzhanov advances with 1.5 -0.5; Nigel Short (Eng) (0.5) drew with Alexander Dreev (Rus) (0.5), game into tie-break with 1-1 and Alexander Beliavsky (Slo) (0.5) drew with Sergei Rublevsky (Rus) (0.5) Beliavsky advances with 1.5 -0.5.

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WOMEN: Irina Krush (USA) (0.5) drew with Svetlana Matveeva (Rus) (0.5) Matveeva advances with 1.5 – 0.5; Koneru Humpy (Ind) (0) lost to Li Ruofan (Chn) (1) Game into tie-break with 1-1; Wang Pin (Chn) (0) lost to Antoneta Stefanova (Bul) (1) Stefanova advances with 1.5 – 0.5 and S Meenakshi (Ind) (0) lost to Xu Yuhua (Chn) (1) Yuhua advances with 1.5 – 0.5.

Humpy played the French defence and Li Ruofan replied with the advanced variation. In the middle-game Humpy’s position looked passive and Ruofan exploited it with few correct exchanges of pieces. Slowly the game turned in favour of Ruofan and she was better placed in the rook and five pawns ending. Humpy resigned on the 73rd move. Humpy had the courage to speak to the press after the game. She said, ‘‘I played casually and my middle-game position was bad. Now, let me try my hand in the tie-break.’’

After exchange of pieces in the Sicilian Accelerated Dragon variation, Anand ended up with a bishop and rook to Malakhov’s knight and rook. Though Malakhov had an extra pawn, Anand’s pieces looked active and well placed. The position seemed equal and Anand himself admitted it..

Another Asian, Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan moved into the last four with a facile draw against Chinese Ye Jiangchuan.