Anand loses third game
against Ponomariov

Vishwanathan Anand suffered an early setback in the Mainz Chess Classics 2002 when he lost the third game against 18-year-old world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine.

Having drawn the first two games, the 32-year-old Indian, a former world champion himself, is down 1-2 and would have to work really hard to make a comeback in the remaining five games of the contest.

For Anand, the brighter side in the remaining games is the fact that he has three whites that might help him to crack Ponomariov's defences and salvage his reputation as the world's finest player in the rapid chess.

Ponomariov opened with the king pawn in the third game and, quite surprisingly, Anand opted for the sharp Sicilian Sveshnikov defence that is in vogue these days. The game progressed along established theoretical manoeuvres and Anand maintained a dynamic balance as the game entered the middle- game phase.

Ponomariov gained the upper hand after Anand went for a dubious strategic plan that allowed the Ukrainian's knight to make a foray to the sixth rank, well aided by a central pawn.

By the 26th move itself, the players arrived at a Queen and minor pieces endgame where Ponomariov's superior deployment of forces enabled him to exert pressure against Anand's weak queenside pawn.

In a desperate bid to wriggle out of this mess, Anand sacrificed a pawn on the kingside to open up the position but it only worked to Ponomariov's advantage. Going for the kill, Ponomariov pocketed another pawn with excellent piece play and then caught Anand's king in a mating net to romp home in 44 moves.

Earlier in the first game of the match, Anand was lucky to get a draw from a seemingly lost position. The players on this occasion fought out the duel in a Caro Kann defence game where Anand, playing black, went for castling on the queenside and had to defend for long as Ponomariov, quite nonchalantly, launched an offence against the king.

Anand went for the exchange of pieces to ease the pressure but could not really match Ponomariov's persistence for an attack. With a precisely worked out plan, Ponomariov ripped open Anand's queenside and was cruising to a victory when suddenly an oversight caused him dearly on the 34th move.

Capitalising on the error, Anand steered the game to a draw in 39 moves.

In the second game, Anand had his chances with the white pieces but Ponomariov yet again put up a spirited show to get the half point through repetition of moves. The opening was a Sicilian Nazdorf wherein Anand employed his pet English attack and maintained an extremely complicated middlegame structure right through.

Ponomariov on the other hand had his task cut out on the queenside and he got his fair share of counter play amidst a wave of attack against his king. The peace treaty was signed after 40 moves.