Anand wins 1st Semi-Final in Leon

Anand edges out Vallejo Pons

In the first semi-final of the Leon tournament in Spain, World Champion Vishy Anand had to struggle to beat local boy Vallejo Pons in their rapid match.  After sharing a win apiece and 2 draws in the 4 rapid games, Anand won the first blitz tie-break game and accepted a draw in a winning position in the second, to finish off the plucky Vallejo.

Anand's victory in the second rapid game was achieved using the same variation against the Caro-Kann as employed by Magnus Carlsen to defeat Peter Leko in game 4 of their current match in Hungary!  Is Vishy taking tips off the Norwegian wunderkind?!

In fact, the victory in game 2 had more to do with Vallejo Pons blundering a piece away on move 38. 

All the games are below.  Rapid games were played at 20 minutes/game plus a 10 second increment per move. 

Vasilly Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov will meet on Saturday, with the winner taking on Anand in the final on Sunday.