Anand beats Khalifman to move into quarters

In a clash of two former world champions, Viswanathan Anand continued his great form to oust GM Alexander Khalifman of Russia in the second round of the Eurotel Knockout chess tournament in Prague.

Another former World champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia struck form to score his biggest victory in the past few years, defeating Braingames match winner GM Vladimir Kramnik 1.5-0.5 to seal his berth in the quarter-finals.

World's highest rated player Gary Kasparov of Russia had no trouble in tackling a rather adventurous GM Judith Polgar of Hungary as he stormed past her 2-0 in the rapid games itself while Bosnian GM Ivan Sokolov did another David v/s Goliath act to beat highly rated GM Michael Adams of England.

The remaining results in the pre-quarters were on expected lines.

Be it the open or the closed, the Ruy Lopez opening has served Anand exceedingly well since his foray in elite chess circles. And it did not disappoint him on Tuesday too.

But it was a costly oversight by Khalifman that spelt doom for him on the 17th move. Anand quickly seized the opportunity with a temporary piece sacrifice and just a few moves later, was an exchange up.

Later the former World champion thwarted the counter measures of Khalifman in an exemplary fashion. and forced the Russian to resign on the 37th move.

In the return game, Khalifman went all out for the kill but could not really match the defensive acumen of Anand. Khalifman called it a day after 32 moves.

Karpov was in his element in getting past Kramnik. The first game was drawn after Kramnik failed to get a desirable advantage from the white side of a Nimzo Indian defence game. Karpov deployed his forces well on the queenside and equalised easily. A couple of pieces got exchanged and the draw was agreed to in 25 moves.

In the second game Karpov, playing white, was quick to spot a weak manoeuvre by Kramnik in the Queen's Indian defence and initiated a queenside attack that netted him a pawn.

Kramnik went for the king by rolling his pawns in and around the centre but by the time he managed a dent in white's castled position, the extra pawn of Karpov had proceeded to the sixth rank. Keeping an eye on the pawn and continuing with the attack was an arduous task and Kramnik did not succeed. The game lasted 51 moves.

Kasparov used the ultra sharp Sicilian Sveshnikov to beat Polgar in the first game. Playing lively and living dangerously, Polgar left her kingside unattended and had to pay heavy dividends as Kasparov penetrated the base rank with his queen and rook.

Polgar went for an outing with her king in the middle of the board but blundered a piece to go down in 45 moves.

In their second game, Kasparov employed the Rossolimo attack with black pieces and sacrificed his queen in the middlegame for just a rook. A further wave of attack not only helped Kasparov to win the queen back but also gave him a winning Bishop and pawns endgame.

The best player on earth by consent did just the needful to pocket the full point.