Kramnik, Karpov cruise
into second round

Braingames match-winner Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik of Russia crashed through the defences of Zbynek Hracek of Czechoslovakia to win his first outing in the Eurotel Knockout tournament in Prague.

Former World champion Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grishchuk and Peter Svidler were the other Russian GMs sealing their places in the second round while Latvian-born Spaniard Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria had to sweat it out in tough encounters to proceed to the last 16 places in the 32-player 500,000 Euros event.

In earlier matches yesterday, top seed Gary Kasparov of Russia and former World champion Vishwanathan Anand made it to the pre-quarters by outclassing GM Gilberto Milos of Brazil and GM Jan Timman of the Netherlands respectively.

Kramnik did not show any signs of missing competitive chess for a long time and simply outplayed Hracek in both the games. Playing white in the first game, Hracek ventured into less trodden paths of the Ruy Lopez opening and met Kramnik's simple and effective moves that ensured ample piece play for the second player.

It was in the early middle game itself that Hracek fumbled to allow the invasion of Kramnik's pieces that proved fatal. In trying to find some counter play, Hracek lost control and resigned in just 23 moves.

In the second game, Hracek could not do much with his black pieces after employing the Queen's Indian defence. Kramnik, needing just a draw with the favourable colour, concentrated on routine development and exerted pressure on the kingside to get a desirable advantage. Hracek failed to put up with the pressure and lost in 40 moves.

Karpov beat Nigel Short of England by a 1.5-0.5 margin. It was a miniature in the first game that did the trick for Karpov. The opening was a Nimzo Indian Capablanca variation where Short tried to be adventurous right from the word go and had to pay the penalty for his over-ambitious play.

Karpov did just the needful, right placement of his pieces and precise calculation to have Short reeling under tremendous pressure in the centre as well as on the kingside. The game lasted a mere 20 moves.

Short tried hard to make a comeback in the second game but did not succeed against Karpov's solid Petroff defence. After battling it out for 45 moves, Short resigned.

Grishchuk had to face stiff resistance from GM Vladislav Tkachiev of France before toppling him in the sudden death game 3-2.

In the deciding sudden death game, Grishchuk won in 54 moves to move ahead in the tournament.

Results:

Round 1

Kasparov, Garry (RUS) - Milos, Gilberto (BRA) - 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
Van Wely, Loek (NED) - Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR) - 0.5-1.5 (0.5, 0-1)
Gelfand, Boris (ISR) - Seirawan, Yasser (USA) - 1.5-0.5 (0.5, 1-0)
Polgar, Judit (HUN) - Ye, Jiangchuan (CHN) - 2.5-1.5 (1-0, 0-1, tie-break: 1-0, 0.5)
Timman, Jan (NED) - Anand, Viswanathan (IND) - 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)
Adams, Michael (ENG) - Radjabov, Teimour (AZE) - 2.5-1.5 (0.5, 0.5, tie-break: 1-0, 0.5)
Sokolov, Ivan (BIH) - Leko, Peter (HUN) - 2.5-1.5 (0.5, 0.5, tie-break: 1-0, 0.5)
Khalifman, Alexander (RUS) - Bologan, Viktor (MDA) - 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
Hracek, Zbynek (CZE) - Kramnik, Vladimir (RUS) - 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)
Karpov, Anatoly (RUS) - Short, Nigel (ENG) - 1.5-0.5 (1-0, 0.5)
Tkachiev, Vladislav (FRA) - Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) - 2-3 (0.5, 0.5, tie-break: 0-1, 1-0, 0-1)
Morozevich, Alexander (RUS) - Movsesian, Sergei (CZE) - 1.5-0.5 (0.5, 1-0)
Topalov, Veselin (BUL) - Milov, Vadim (SUI) - 2.5-1.5 (1-0, 0-1, tie-break: 1-0, 0.5)
Piket, Jeroen (NED) - Svidler, Peter (RUS) - 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)
Shirov, Alexei (ESP) - Gurevich, Mikhail (BEL) - 3-1 (0.5, 0.5, tie-break: 1-0, 1-0)
Jussupow, Artur (GER) - Bareev, Evgeny (RUS) - 1.5-0.5 (0.5, 1-0)

Yesterday's report

Anand in round 2 of Eurotel championship