The Press Trust of India
September 11, 2008 Thursday
Anand out of contention for top finish after loss to Aronian
Bilbao (Spain) Sep 11
>From Our Chess Correspondent
World Champion Viswanathan Anand bowed out of contention for a top
finish in the Bilbao Grand Slam final chess tournament after losing
from a better position against Levon Aronian of Armenia in the eighth
round here.
After suffering his second loss in the tournament, Anand’s number one
world ranking also came under threat and unless there is a revival in
fortunes of the Indian ace, he stands to lose some precious rating
points as well from the tournament.
On another day of ‘bloody battles’ former world champion Veselin
Topalov scored his second victory over Magnus Carlsen of Norway to
regain sole lead while Vassily Ivanchuk’s new-found form helped him
grind Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.
With just two more rounds remaining in the double round robin event
with a soccer-like scoring system, Topalov has 14 points. He is
followed by Aronian at 12.
Ivanchuk and Carlsen share the third spot with 11 points apiece while
Anand and Radjabov are now distant joint fifth having just 6 points
apiece.
For Anand, there were two disturbing things from the defeat against
Aronian. One he lost with white and secondly he misplayed a superior
endgame.
It was a Scotch opening that gave Anand slightly better prospects
after the queens got traded early and the Indian nursed his position
well to reach a better rook and minor piece endgame.
After winning a pawn, disaster struck Anand as he lost control in
quick time. Aronian took his chances and turned the tables with some
deft manoeuvres. It was a bad day in office for the world champion
when nothing went right. Aronian’s technique has not been in question
for a long time now and he proved why. Queening one of the pawns, the
Armenian got the full point in 75 moves.
Topalov Carlsen was a very exciting affair. The Bulgarian had gone for
the King pawn opening not afraid of meeting Carlsen’s Dragon, which
indeed came on the Board.
Carlsen played a theoretical novelty and he continued to play fast in
the early middle game showing deep preparation but Topalov managed to
get an advantage anyway with some finely crafted manoeuvres.
Experts started to believe in Carlsen’s chances again after Topalov
missed a few clear wins, pointed out by the computer, but the
Bulgarian proved that the human way was also good enough. The game
lasted 42 moves.
Ivanchuk came under tremendous time pressure but the ability to play
fast and correct helped him gain a full point against Radjabov in a
Sicilian defense game.
With 16 moves to go Ivanchuk was left with just one minute against two
of Radjabov and while both were blitzing out the moves Radjabov made a
few inaccuracies and lost an exchange that proved decisive.