Mainz (Germany): World Champion Viswanathan
Anand suffered a double blow before recovering some lost
ground in the third round in the Grenkeleasing World Rapid
Chess Championship that got underway here as the main event of
the Mainz Classics.
Anand, a ten times winner here including the last seven
on the trot, could only manage one point from the first three
games in the knock-out stage, losing the first two games
against Levon Aronian of Armenia and Ian Nepomniachtchi of
Russia before defeating Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany.
At the half-way mark in the double round-robin
preliminary stage, Aronian and Naiditsch share the lead on 2.5
points out of possible three while Anand follows them 1.5
points behind. The other contender, Naiditsch, is yet to open
his account.
With just three games to come in the preliminaries, Anand
faces a rare ouster threat as he will have to do exceptionally
well to finish in the top two and qualify for the finals.
Making things worse for the Indian was that his defeats
came with white pieces and the task of a comeback will now
have to be carried out with black pieces against the leaders.
The first game of the day indicated that Anand was not in
top form. Playing with white against Aronian he used an
unusual amount of time in the opening. Even as he managed to
secure himself the bishop pair things were far from clear.
Anand walked into a worse endgame and gave Aronian an
important point in the opener.
As Anand himself explained in the post game conference,
that "things were a bit complicated. Therefore I was ready to
draw but did not want to sit too passively. But with little
time on the clock I went astray."
In the second round, young Russian Nepomniachtchi had to
face Anand with black pieces but fortune was on his side.
Nepomniachtchi opted for the sharp Poisoned Pawn variation of
the Najdorf Sicilian and as Anand later admitted in the press
conference "I did not quite know what I was playing and could
not clearly remember what to do in this line."
This blackout of the world champion gave Nepomniachtchi a
better endgame and a second point. With no point from two
games, Anand could not have had a worse start.
Anand, however, secured a comeback victory in the third
round against Naiditsch in a Caro Kann defense game. Naiditsch
chose a harmless variation in the early stages and lost a pawn
right after the opening.
And even though Anand "almost managed to spoil even this
game to a draw", as he said at the post-match press conference
with a grim sense of humour, Naiditsch's extra pawn permitted
a certain degree of inaccuracy.
Anand scored his first win -– which he certainly needed
to keep up his hopes alive in the event.
In the first game of the day, Nepomniachtchi was almost
staring defeat against Naiditsch but the latter found no way
to push him over the edge. The Russian neutralised the enemy
threats slowly to achieve a better endgame before finally
winning the game.
After this loss in the first round the German number one,
Naiditsch, lacked the energy to offer significant resistance
to a revitalized Aronian.
Immediately after the opening, Naiditsch went haywire and
had to give a pawn to prevent the worse. But that did not save
him from losing the game.
In the Nepomniachtchi vs Aronian third round game, both
proceeded carefully. Playing with white, Nepomniatchchi
treaded rather cautiously and it took a pawn sacrifice by
Aronian to provide some excitement.
However, as the balance was never seriously disturbed the
game soon ended in a draw.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, August 01, 2009, 11:48