Khalifman after his match:
Q: Your defeat by Anand was very unfortunate,
A: You might say so. L am deeply disappointed that I did not win the second regular game with black.
Q: Everything seemed to be clear in the rook ending.
A: Yes, certainly. I should have played 45…Re5 instead of 45… f4, He would not have had a chance then, and I would have passed to the next round instead of him.
Q: Do you like the new WCC format?
A: What can I say as a player who was just eliminated? I would have liked to be still in, but it is my own fault. The regulations are generally quite all right and up to date. It is more dynamic and that leads to great public interest.
Q: And the defect?
A: No one should be privileged. The world champion should at least start earlier on ri the tounament.
Moreover, it should never happen that you bump into a favourite like Anand in the third round, while there is a paring like Azmaiparahvi-Krasenkov later on.
Round 4
Down to eight matches, five of which went to rapid playoffs. It became increasingly obvious that strong nerves are going to play a big part in the results as the prize money increased.
The Almasi – Anand match was one effectively finished in the first game when Anand won with black. The game itself was one of the most puzzling of the event. Anand was offered a draw early in the game but it became obvious that Almasi was getting the initiative soon after that. 22. …a5 was a very risky choice according to Anand after the game and 28. f4 threatened to increase that with a comfortable advantage for white. Anand’s choice was to give up the exchange, a deep and I still think slightly dubious strategy but it lured Almasi into seeking a definite win. Almasi struggled with the clock and in finding a good plan. He had a go at attacking f7 and in doing so allowed Anand to push his a pawn to a3.
Shortly after the first time control he blundered away his E-pawn. In time pressure and losing more material Almasi resigned. The Hungarian put up only token resistance in the second game.
Van Wely utilising some of the knowledge he had gained working as Gata Kamsky’s second got a tremendous advantage out of the opening against Kiril Georgiev. When 18. d5 arrived he was probably already winning and ten moves later the Bulgarian resigned. The second game saw Georgiev do all but equalise the match. It has been seen though that even with winning positions the must win situation can lead to nerves at the vital moment. 37. Be6 probably wins instantly. Even though he pressed for a long time Georgiev couldn’t get the win he needed and Van Wely went through.
After a dry draw in their first game Shirov managed to go through by a fine victory in the second game of his match against Akopian. His grab of a pawn with 24. Qxh6 didn’t really look worth it for quite a while as Shirov had to reorganise his position against an assault on his King and the centre. In the end he obtained an overwhelming ending which he converted.
Probably the match of the round was that between Nigel Short and Alexander Beliavsky.
Playing the English Defence as Black was a risky choice from Short. He had seen a rather wet treatment by Beliavsky in a previous game. This time Beliavsky came up with a new idea 7. Be2 and Short started to have to sacrifice material. At first it definitely seemed enough with Beliavsky losing most of his pawns. In a crazy game where it would not surprise me if Short missed a chance or two (although generally it seemed mostly in Beliavsky’s favour) Beliavsky managed to make it to time control with a winning position after some hair rising moments. Short was saved in the second game by Beliavsky going down a very bad line of the Ruy Lopez. It isn’t clear that either side knew the theory all the way down to the end but Short believed 14. …c6 was already bad. In fact theory went down to 22. …h5 which was the first new move. Five moves later Beliavsky lost most of his pieces.
In the playoffs Short played quite agressively with an active version of the black side of the Queens Gambit vs Bf4. His isolated pawn was a potential weakness but as Beliavsky tried to play for a win he started to take too many risks. Short was allowed to get a passed pawn on d4 and then d3. He then very effectively rapped up an ending which was hard to defend at speed chess. Short played simply and effectively against the Modern in the second game easily securing the point he needed to go through.
Prior to the round Adams -Svidler looked the tie of the round. However the players had far too much respect for each other and the match became a war of attrition. Draws were agreed in a tedious Sicilian and Ruy Lopez called to a halt just out of the opening. This lead to an incredible series of speed games where Adams emerged with 3/4. The first game saw a level position slip away from him as white. The next should have seen Svidler find a boring line and get the draw to go through. Instead in a sharp Ruy Lopez Adams was allowed to set up a potentially winning Queenside which left Svidler trying to get something on the Kingside. When he didn’t things fell apart quickly. 1-1. The next saw a Marshall Attack against Svidlers Ruy Lopez which looked good for the Russian who was a pawn up and looking for a victory. Adams is very stubborn in defence and he kept finding strong lines of resistance. When 50. d4 came in the roof fell in remarkably quickly (b4 would have been very different). c4 followed and then Adams mopped up the Queenside to win. The final game saw Svidler win a pawn through a tactical trick but as Adams put the shutters up Svidler suicided rather than give the draw.
Mikhail Krasenkow went through after a struggle against the highly rated Zurab Azmaiparashvili. A ding dong match when Krasenkow should have gone through in the second normal time rate game until his normally good endgame technique abandoned him. Two draws in the 25 minute speed games were followed by a win for Azmaiparashvili in the first 15 minute game. A determined performance saw him level the match after a long game. Then he won the first sudden death game with Azmaiparashvili when the Georgian went down a known book trap and lost a pawn.
Zvjaginsev was eventually outlasted by Dreev but only after a hard match. Dreev seemed to be in control of game one when some weird play (13. …Nd8) should have led to a technically winning ending. But inaccuracies allowed Zvjaginsev to activate his rook just in time to save the draw. The reverse was true of the next game with Dreev being in terrible trouble in a Queen and pawn ending. Somehow these endings aren’t as easy as they appear for this kind of money and Dreev managed to find perpetual check. It all ended rather tragically for Zvjaginsev. He got a huge position after finding a nice tactic in the opening of the first 25 minute game. But he couldn’t find a way through, bailed out into an ending a couple of useless pawns up and lost. He understandably didn’t put up much resistance in game 2.
Tkachiev fancies himself as a speed expert, once he managed to hold out against Gelfand with black in the second game he fancied his chances. In fact it probably was a good option.
In the playoffs lthough he was absolutely stuffed in the first game he played very nicely to level the match after two games. Another draw and then Tkachiev achieved a significant advantage in the 4th. Gelfand really pulled out all the stops and took over the initiative and then took the game to go through.
- Tkachiev KAZ – B. Gelfand BLR 0.5 0.5 (1.5-2.5)
- Dreev RUS – Zvjaginsev RUS 0.5 0.5 (2-0)
- Almasi HUN – V. Anand IND 0-1 0-1
- Akopian ARM – A. Shirov ESP 0.5 0-1
- Azmaiparashvili.GEO – Krasenkow POL 0.5 0.5 (1.5-2)
- Beliavsky SLO – N. Short ENG 1-0 0-1 (0-2)
- Van Wely NED – K. Georgiev BUL 1-0 0.5
- Adams ENG – Svidler RUS 0.5 0.5 (3-1)
Round 5
Shirov lost the first game of the top match against Anand. He played one of his current favourite defences, an su variation of the Spanish opening and introduced the first novelty 13….exd4. It lead to complex play but Anand always seemed to have things under control achieving a completely winning ending at first time control. The second game was drawn with Shirov holding the initiative all the time but not finding a way to make it tell.
Short who at one point this year seemed to have forgotten how to win got another two against Krasenkow. All went to plan for Krasenkow for a while. Short played a long game and brought to play his emense experience, in fact this is some of the best play I’ve seen from him for many years, only his openings still look a little lightweight. Here he kept a small advantage for a long while and then Krasenkow cracked allowing first a significant initiative and then with 44. …Bc8 a terminal solution for white. Short equalized with black in the second game and as Krasenkow continued to try to find something found a rather big one mover 28. …Nxg3 to secure his passage.
The other two matches went to playoffs.
Van Wely against Adams was one of the most hard fought of all the matches here. Both are very tough mentally and they had to be as both were in trouble in the normal time rate games.
Adams had a very big initiative in the first game but allowed a highly unusual but surprisingly effective sacrifice from Van Wely of Queen for just Rook and Pawn. It became clear that Adams couldn’t easily exploit this advantage and in the end Adams forced Van Wely to give perpetual check. Van Wely seemed certain to go through in the second game. A strange game in which Van Wely offered an early draw, something in retrospect Adams should have taken (although the nature of the psychology of these matches is that when Adams saved a lost game he had the high ground going into the speed play). Adams gradually had his pieces misplaced and this cost him a pawn and more seemed certain to follow. In a difficult game two opportunities to win seem to have been missed, 57.Rf6+ Ke8 58.Ng7+ Ke7 59.Nxe6 Rxe6 60.Rf5 and 62.Nd6 Ke6 63.Ne4 the pressure however continued and a final chance with 84. Nd3 was also passed up before Adams forced the draw in 92 moves. The speed play games continued the hard fought nature of the games. Adams suffered under slight pressure in a Queens Indian for some time. Probably releasing the pressure with 37. e5+ when he only had to be careful to draw. The final game was a tragedy for Van Wely. Both players quickly used up their 25 minute reserve of time from the start of the game and were down to playing 10 seconds a move in a highly unusual 1. d4 d5 2. Bg5 f6 treatment of the opening. Adams gradually took the initiative and left many possibilities on the board. He eventually took a queen sacrifice Van Wely had left on the board and penetrated with his Queen. In one of the most undignified exits so far Van Wely lost on time whilst trying to upright a piece he had knocked over. After the game he seems not to have been as disappointed to go out this way as I would have been.
Gelfand and Dreev drew both normal time rate games. Gelfand completely dominated the playoffs. He played a fine first game but time trouble intervened which saw him wreck an overwhelming position. The second game saw a drawish position set up. However Gelfand outplayed Dreev comprehensively in the late stage of the game to go through.
- Gelfand BLR – A. Dreev RUS 0.5 0.5 (1.5-0.5)
- Anand IND – A. Shirov ESP 1-0 0.5
- Short ENG – M. Krasenkow POL 1-0 1-0
- Adams ENG – L. Van Wely NED 0.5 0.5 (1.5-0.5)
Round 6
Anand got past Gelfand after Gelfand didn’t make any headway with white after playing the wrong variation in game one. Boris has prepared a reinforcement of Khalifman – Anand of round three, but at the board he mixed up some move some moves, so a full-scale draw was unavoidable. In game two Anand choose an subvariation of the Najdorf which took Gelfand away from his preparation in an early stage. The Byelorussian blundered 16…h6 instead of 16…Qd7 and loss material and later the game.
Short and Adams shared two fine wins in the normal timerate games. Before playing four fluctuating draws in the rapid-play games. Adams impressed winning in the first sudden death game to go through.
- Gelfand BLR – Anand, V IND 0.5 0-1
- Adams ENG – Short, N ENG 1-0 0-1 (3-2)
Gelfand: “It‘s all in the game and I won a nice amont of money anyway. I have nly played draws and still I have make it to final four.You can become world champion without winning a single regular game. Stange system!”
Round 7
Four draws in the normal time rate games take Adams and Anand into the playoffs.
Adams had very strong pressure in the first game but after that he has given the impression of hanging on. Anand looked better in game two without generating anything really concrete in game 2. In game 3 he is thought to have missed 29. …Bd4 with a winning position before allowing Adams to squirm out. In game four Adams played the Marshall and perhaps should have taken the a6 pawn with his queen rather than the d5 pawn but this hasn’t been analysed fully. The players are reported to be very tired and the playoffs make it even more probable that Karpov will play an opponent totally burnt out by a punishing schedule.
A very tense playoff between Michael Adams and Viswanathan Anand took place on the last day of the Groningen event. Anand generally dominated the rapid playoffs without managing to put Adams away until the introduction of the blitz sudden death game. In the first he played aggressively against Anand’s Caro Kann but couldn’t really call on a real advantage. The second game was Adam’s best chance, his closed Sicilian came close to breaking through although Anand’s huge advantage on the clock played a part. No concrete winning line has been found so perhaps there was nothing. The third game was again a Sicilian closed and after some correct play a draw was agreed. The fourth game was a fascinating struggle in the English but one that didn’t leave a draw. The players passed to the blitz game where Anand quickly built up a time advantage in spite of having less at the start. 14. c5 lead to a huge advantage and to all appearances this lead directly to a win. However Anand 26. Rf3 was poor when 26. …Qg5 27. Qe1 f5! might objectively turn the tables although the time advantage for Anand at this stage might have still given him the win. As it was Anand simply throttled Adams.
- Adams ENG- V. Anand IND 2-2 (2-3)
Anand after the last tiebreak game: “Mickey had his chance today. I cold have gone either way. He could just as well have been giving a speech here now! Fortuntely I do not feel like a dead body. There disadvantages to all WCC formulas. The quality of the games here will not have been as hight as in the traditional Candidates matches, but on the other hand there were fewer draws in seventeen moves here. I should never happen again that the world chamion is seeded to the final without playing a single match.
I won all my mini-matches here. Only against Adams did I have to play a tie- break. Altogether I played over twenty games. If you don’t lose a single one, that certainly makes you feel good, but you know the toughest opponent—Karpov- is still to come. Before the tournament some onc said that the winner of Groningcn would be br to Karpov in a coffin! Well, it was pretty tough here but I don’t feel as if I’m going to Lausanne in a coffin! Karpov didn’t have to play here, which is certainly a big advantage, but he can’t expect our match to be a walkover.”
M. Adams: “I am already happy that I made it to this stage, because I was in big trouble in a few games. Against P. Svidler and L. van Wely I narrowly escaped. Vishy made it to the final more convincing way than I did.The fact that Kasparov and Kramnik didn’t take part here is not his fault. He has started to build something and that is important. You know, I used to play in both the FIDE and PCA cycles, but then there came a time when there was nothing. We should ac knowledge Ilyumzhinov for giving us something back. This kind of World Championship cycle is very good for your motivation as a professional player. It gives you a clear goal, which is much more interesting that just playing another tournament somewhere. The fact that there was criticism in the beginning seems quite natural to me. Anyone in llyumzhinov’s position can expect that, but after staging this tournament I expect that things will calm down. He has given a new future to the World Championship cycle and all credit to him for that.”
The Final
“A requirement of sport is competition, and chess has no competition”, International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch announced to resounding applause in his address at the opening ceremonies of the World Chess Championship finals, 2nd January at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The highest rated in Groningen, Viswanathan Anand of India arrived in Lausanne with his wife and a battery of seconds, namely GM’s Artur Yusupov of Germany, Peter Leko of Hungary and Elisbar Ubilava of Georgia.
Karpov came with the whole retinue including seconds GM Vladimir Tukmakov, Alexander Onishuk and Mikhail Podgaets of Ukraine, and GM Ivan Morovic of Chile.
The entire Olymic Museum in Lausanne was turned over to FIDE. Equipped with all the modern facilities, the whole building is wired with TV-monitors in each room. In the main hall, spectators wore headphones and listened to running commentaries and had the choice of English (GM Mikhail Gurevich and IM Karolyi Tibor) or French (GM Olivier Renet and IM Luc Winants). Overflow crowds watched the game in a spectator’s room with large screen, or monitors in the restaurant, VIP room and throughout the museum. Visitors were met by a welcome and accreditation desk manned by personnel of the Lausanne Tourism Board. A well-equipped press-room provided services for the media