Veni,vidi,vishy:Part V
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chessbibliophile on Wed, 12/23/2009 at 3:39am.
1985
In chess, as in life, nothing can be taken for granted.The National Junior Championship commenced on 29th December,1984 in Nagpur. When it concluded on 8th January, 1985 there was a surprise. Anand had been pipped at the post by one of his old rivals, Neeraj Kumar Mishra. Ironically enough, both Anand and Mishra led the field till the end and were level with 7 points out of 9. In the last round Anand was shocked by Sudhakar Babu, and Mishra overtook him by beating K.P.Rao.
Final Standings:1.N.K.Mishra :8 points
2.Sudhakar Babu:7.5 points
3-4. Anand and Ebenezer Joseph:7 points
(Neeraj Kumar Mishra in recent years)
In summer Anand participated in National ‘A’ Championship held in Tenali. Pravin Thipsay, 26, won the title for the third time scoring 14 points of 17. He remained unbeaten and his victory was well-deserved.
Anand shared 2-5th place with Ravikumar, Meetei and Arun Vaidya scoring 10.5 points.He lost as many as 3 games (to Thipsay, Meetei and D.V.Prasad), but piled up a high score with 7 wins and 7 draws. In the following game his opponent is 27-year-old IM Koshy.Today Koshy is known as a veteran with penchant for positional play.
Their encounter turned out to be an important contribution to the theory of Pirc Defence.
A terrific game with mind-boggling complications!
Anand traveled next to Hong Kong to play in the Asian Junior Championship. In Preliminary ‘A’ Group he made a clean sweep scoring 5/5. His fellow player, Neeraj Kumar Mishra made a similar score, with 4.5 points out of 5. The duo finished first and second in the Finals. Like last year Anand lost to Sri Lanka’s Perera, but he scored 8.5 points out of 11. Mishra scored 8 points, following close behind. Anand earned his IM title with this resounding victory.
In the last week of June he participated in the F.A.Ahmed IM Tournament held in New Delhi. The event was sponsored by the family of the late President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. The competition was tough, with the participation of Pravin Thipsay, the reigning National Champion and experienced players like Arun Vaidya, Ravikumar, D.V.Prasad and and A.B.Meetei. Prasad won the tournament on tie-break, with 8 points out of 11. Ravikumar and Meetei shared 2nd-3rd place also with 8 points. Thipsay was 4th with 7.5 points. His relative failure can be explained by his solitary loss to Anand. The latter shared 5th-6th place with Hon.Christi (a player from Maldives) with 7 points. Anand’s placing was modest in view of his losses to Prasad, Meetei and Hon.Christi.
In August once again he made a trip to London to participate in the Lloyds Bank Masters Tournament. He came first in the Under-21 Invitation Tournament, scoring 9 points out of 10. But the Masters Tournament was not going to be easy. It attracted 159 players from 21 countries, and the field included powerful grandmasters like Alexander Belyavsky, John Nunn and Maia Chiburdanidze. Alexander Belyavsky, 31, ranked No.3 in the world claimed the Lloyds Bank Trophy, scoring 7.5 points out of 9. Anand trailed far behind, with 5.5 points.His only consolation was the quick victory over Jonathan Mestel.
In September Anand was in Sharjah to take part in World Junior Championship. This was a 13-round Swiss with 69 players participating in it. But success eluded Anand.
Maxim Dlugy of USA won the event with a score of 10 points out of 13. He also won the blitz tournament. Anand was 5th. In the main event he had begun well, and indeed beaten Maxim Dlugy in the 6th round and taken lead. But his performance was marred by losses to Pavel Blatny and James Howell.In the end he had to share 4th-9th place with five others including Vassily Ivanchuk with 8.5 points.
In October he participated in the Guruswami Naidu Memorial Open Tournament. Deservedly, he took the first place, scoring 9.5 points out of 11.He conceded a solitary draw to Raja Ravi Sekhar and lost in surprising fashion to S.Ganesan, but managed to beat the rest.
Note:The images of Anand's Indian rivals are from recent years.
They looked rather different when they were young.
See the following link for the preceding part of the series:
http://www.chess.com/article/view/venividivishypart-iv
To be continued
(Courtesy: Chess Mate magazine, India)
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