Zhu Chen stuns World champ Ruslan Ponomariov

The FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament got off to a sensational start, with women's World champion Zhu Chen of China scoring a stunning victory over youngest-ever World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the first round, in Dubai, on Wednesday.

The match set the stage for an exciting tournament which will see former World champion Vishwanathan Anand in action late in the evening. Anand takes on Taleb Moussa of the UAE in the first round.

Ponomariov, 18, was shown the exit by the 25-year-old Chinese after the second game of the first round that Zhu Chen won with brilliant defensive technique. Their first game had ended in a draw. The Chinese GM won 1.5-0.5.

In other interesting battles of the first session of the first round, Grandmaster Veselin Topalov routed Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine by a 2-0 margin and GM Joel Lautier of France defeated Maxim Novik of Russia 1.5-0.5.

The tournament is being played on a knock-out format under the Rapid Chess rules. Each player is awarded 25 minutes at the start of the game and thereon 30 seconds are added to the clock as every move is played. Two games are played in the first round with alternate colours.

Thirty-two players are particpating and Ponomariov was given the top billing because of his status of World champion.

Results of the first session of round 1:
Six games have been played. Two games have been postponed till session two, which starts at 6:00 pm Dubai time.
Zhu, Chen (CHN) - Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR) - 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1) Karpov, Anatoly (RUS) - Van Wely, Loek (NED) - 2.5-1.5 (0-1, 1-0 tie-break 1-0, 0.5) Ye, Jiangchuan (CHN) - Dreev, Alexey (RUS) - 0-2 (0-1, 0-1) Georgiev, Kiril (BUL) - Nikolic, Predrag (BIH) - 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5) Lautier, Joel (FRA) - Novik, Maxim (RUS) - 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5) Topalov, Veselin (BUL) - Karjakin, Sergey (UKR) - 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)