Anand Acts
Anand beats Short in London Chess Classic
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World Champion Viswanathan Anand finally found his winning ways in London Chess Classic. (TOI Photo)
Chennai: Viswanathan Anand gave further proof of his impressive record against English Grandmasters when he outwitted former challenger Nigel Short in the fifth round of the London Chess Classic on Thursday.
With this, Anand ended a win-less run of 12 games in the last one month in classical chess. Curiously, the win came soon after the World Champion's unfortunate loss to Hikaru Nakamura of US in the fourth round.
Nakamura seems to have found his feet in this tournament as he shot into sole lead with 10 points after defeating David Howell of England. Magnus Carlsen of Norway looked shaky against Levon Aronian of Armenia, who lacked the killer-instinct to convert a promising position. The Norwegian was in second position with nine points.
Short and Anand played an offbeat variation in the Sicilian Rossolimo which was balanced for some time before the Englishman blundered in time trouble. Interestingly, Anand ignored an alert from his second Peter Heine Nielsen about this variation and never expected to face it in London.
"Nielsen has been telling me to quickly look at this line and I just never bothered. He even sent me a summary of ideas he had in this line and I still don't know what they are. But today I will go and look at them," the World Champion admitted after the game.
Short said he basically collapsed on the run up to first time control. "It's not enough to play reasonable chess for three or three hours 50 minutes, you have to play for the whole game," he philosophised. He played a shocking knight move away from action and paid the penalty. "A move of criminal stupidity," Short was to comment on that 34th move.
But it was the hesitation of Short on move 25 that led to the scramble. "I spent a lot of time here because I got a lot of plausible looking moves," Short reasoned. Anand felt Short went down from 45 to 18 minutes because of this one move. After 62 moves, Anand pocketed his first win since beating Vallejo Pons in the last round of Bilbao.
Aronian got a big advantage against Carlsen before a number of errors led to a draw. The Armenian admitted he saw a pawn move but then "forgot" to play it. The Slav game ended in a draw after 39 moves.
Nakamura capitalised on David Howell's time trouble in English opening and won in 38 moves. Vladimir Kramnik adopted the Catalan against Michael Adams and pressed from the start. Adams, who has not had a good home tournament so far, wilted under pressure in a battle of ideas.
Results (Round 5): Hikaru Nakamura (US) 10 bt David Howell (Eng) 2; Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 8 bt Michael Adams (Eng) 2; Levon Aronian (Armenia) 5 drew with Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 9; Nigel Short (Eng) 3 lost to Vishy Anand (Ind) 5, Luke McShane (Eng) 8 bye.
With this, Anand ended a win-less run of 12 games in the last one month in classical chess. Curiously, the win came soon after the World Champion's unfortunate loss to Hikaru Nakamura of US in the fourth round.
Nakamura seems to have found his feet in this tournament as he shot into sole lead with 10 points after defeating David Howell of England. Magnus Carlsen of Norway looked shaky against Levon Aronian of Armenia, who lacked the killer-instinct to convert a promising position. The Norwegian was in second position with nine points.
Short and Anand played an offbeat variation in the Sicilian Rossolimo which was balanced for some time before the Englishman blundered in time trouble. Interestingly, Anand ignored an alert from his second Peter Heine Nielsen about this variation and never expected to face it in London.
"Nielsen has been telling me to quickly look at this line and I just never bothered. He even sent me a summary of ideas he had in this line and I still don't know what they are. But today I will go and look at them," the World Champion admitted after the game.
Short said he basically collapsed on the run up to first time control. "It's not enough to play reasonable chess for three or three hours 50 minutes, you have to play for the whole game," he philosophised. He played a shocking knight move away from action and paid the penalty. "A move of criminal stupidity," Short was to comment on that 34th move.
But it was the hesitation of Short on move 25 that led to the scramble. "I spent a lot of time here because I got a lot of plausible looking moves," Short reasoned. Anand felt Short went down from 45 to 18 minutes because of this one move. After 62 moves, Anand pocketed his first win since beating Vallejo Pons in the last round of Bilbao.
Aronian got a big advantage against Carlsen before a number of errors led to a draw. The Armenian admitted he saw a pawn move but then "forgot" to play it. The Slav game ended in a draw after 39 moves.
Nakamura capitalised on David Howell's time trouble in English opening and won in 38 moves. Vladimir Kramnik adopted the Catalan against Michael Adams and pressed from the start. Adams, who has not had a good home tournament so far, wilted under pressure in a battle of ideas.
Results (Round 5): Hikaru Nakamura (US) 10 bt David Howell (Eng) 2; Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 8 bt Michael Adams (Eng) 2; Levon Aronian (Armenia) 5 drew with Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 9; Nigel Short (Eng) 3 lost to Vishy Anand (Ind) 5, Luke McShane (Eng) 8 bye.
