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Heart-break in the tie-break for Anand

"An anti-climax" is how former world title challenger Jan Timman described it, as Vishwanathan Anand lost to defending titlist Anatoly Karpov in the tie-break round of the world chess championship at Lausanne, Switzerland.

What was surprising was that Anand, having done all the hard work by twice coming from behind to share points in the best of six games title clash, lost in the form of the game at which he is most adept -- rapid chess.

Going into the tiebreak, time-limit round, Anand was believed to have the edge, but Karpov defeated him in straight games to keep his hold on the title. Interestingly it is Anand, not Karpov, who is ranked number two in the world behind Garri Kasparov.

Anand in fact held the upper hand in the first game, but blundered. Anand interestingly opened with his king knight, and Karpov was in some time pressure straightaway as he tried to finesse the opening into the classic Reti style.

Anand avoided a bishop exchange on move 18, and Karpov's bad positioning of the kingside bishop was believed to give the Indian a further edge. By move 30, Karpov had less than five minutes available on his clock. Winning a queenside pawn on move 34, Anand moved into a seemingly impregnable position and, by move 37, commentators were marking time before the inevitable.

In fact, the feeling at the time was that Anand would win with black, then defend with the white pieces in game two to hold Karpov, thus winning the tie-breaker 1-0. However, the Indian went for a rather startling move on 40, which weakened his position considerably. Even at this point, Anand could have settled down to play for a draw but having blundered, he tried to retrieve the mistake with some rash play. Karpov was in considerable time trouble, but managed to wipe out Anand's kingside pawns and by exchanging a bishop for Anand's passed queenside pawn, the defending champion took complete charge.

Anand, attempting unsuccessfully to draw the game with perpetual check, was forced to resign on move 62 when even that last ditch attempt failed.

For the third time in the title round, thus, Anand found himself in a must-win situation at the start of the second tie-break game.The Indian opened with queen pawn for the second time in the match, and went on to play an uncharacteristically weak series of opening moves. By move 14, Karpov was already two pawns ahead, and from that point on, there was no chance for the challenger to come back into the game. A weak knight sacrifice on move 23 only made matters worse, and Anand resigned on move 32.

"What can I say, I am happy I played a good game of chess," was all the Indian had to say at the end of the game.

The moves follow:

Anand,V - Karpov,A (0-1) 1. d4 d5 2. Bg5 h6 3. Bh4 c6 4. Nf3 Qb6 5. b3 Bf5 6. e3 Nd7 7. Bd3 Bxd3 8. Qxd3 e6 9. c4 Ne7 10. c5 Qa5 11. Nc3 b6 12. b4 Qxb4 13. O-O Nf5 14. Rfc1 bxc5 15. Rab1 c4 16. Qc2 Qa5 17. Rb7 Qa6 18. Rcb1 Bd6 19. e4 Nxh4 20. Nxh4 Rb8 21. Rxb8 Bxb8 22. exd5 cxd5 23. Ng6 fxg6 24. Qxg6 Kd8 25. Qxg7 Re8 26. Qxh6 Qa5 27. Qg5 Kc8 28. Qg6 Rf8 29. Rc1 Qb6 30. Ne2 e5 31. Qh5 Qf6 32. Rf1 Rh8 (3:13/3:23)

Karpov,A - Anand,V (game 1) (1-0) 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c6 4. O-O Bg4 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 e6 7. e4 Be7 8. Qe2 O-O 9. h3 Bh5 10. Re1 dxe4 11. dxe4 e5 12. b3 Qc7 13. Bb2 Rfe8 14. Qf1 Rad8 15. a3 b5 16. Bc3 Bf8 17. Nh4 Nc5 18. Bf3 Bg6 19. Nxg6 hxg6 20. Bg2 a6 21. Qe2 Ne6 22. Nf3 Nd7 23. a4 b4 24. Bb2 a5 25. c3 bxc3 26. Bxc3 Rb8 27. Rab1 Bb4 28. Rec1 Bxc3 29. Rxc3 c5 30. Qe3 Qd6 31. h4 Nd4 32. Bh3 Nb6 33. Rbc1 c4 34. bxc4 Nxa4 35. c5 Qe7 36. Ra3 Nxc5 37. Rac3 Ncb3 38. Rc7 Qf6 39. R1c3 Nxf3 40. Qxf3 a4 41. Qxf6 gxf6 42. Bd7 Nd4 43. Bxe8 Ne2 44. Kg2 Nxc3 45. Bxf7 Kf8 46. Bxg6 Nb5 47. Rf7 Kg8 48. Rxf6 Ra8 49. h5 a3 50. h6 a2 51. Bf7 Kh7 52. Bxa2 Rxa2 53. g4 Nc3 54. g5 Nxe4 55. Rf7 Kg6 56. Rg7 Kf5 57. h7 Rxf2 58. Kg1 Kg4 59. h8=Q Kg3 60. Re7 Rg2 61. Kf1 Nd2 62. Ke1 (3:27/3:19)

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