Chance for Anand to
redeem lost pride

Former World champion Vishwanathan Anand has a chance to redeem lost pride when he takes on another former champion, Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov of Russia, in the final of the Eurotel World chess tournament in Prague on Saturday.

The change in gear to classical chess from the rapid mode should favour Anand, as Karpov is a master in the faster variant of the game. Till the final all the games were played with 25 minutes each to both players and a five-second addition after every move.

Anand has so far showed brilliance in all his matches, particularly whenever he was found defending an inferior position. According to GM Alexei Shipov, a famous chess expert and commentator, Anand remains one of the most difficult players to beat despite his lack of form in the past few months.

It was a tough outing for Anand in the last encounter against GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. And after that victory, the mood in Anand's camp is definitely upbeat, especially so because Ivanchuk had beaten Anand in the semi-finals of the last World championship.

Karpov, on the other hand, has done wonders. The Russian ace, who reigned as champion for a decade - from 1975 to 1985 - was particularly impressive against Braingames match winner GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and his asset has been consistency.

So far, Karpov has not suffered much in any of the games, which this only proves that his comeback bid is quite strong. It has been a quite perfect opening repertoire compiled with sheer brilliant positional play that has helped Karpov scale an important peak in his career.

Anand will have a tall task but the odds favour him given his excellence in the classical chess format. In the final, both players will get two hours for the first 40 moves, an hour for the next 20 and then the sudden-death of half an hour each.

In case of a 1-1 deadlock after the two classical games, Blitz games will be played to determine the winner.