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Barua loses game two, sets up tie-breaker

Paul Eriksen in Las Vegas

Alexander Khalifman showed just why he was once so feared on the Russian chess scene. The former three-time Russian champion came back from the brink to draw level with Dibyendu Barua, as the Indian was put on the run in a long, 69-move game that saw the white triumph in the second game of the first round of the FIDE World Chess Championships at Caesar's Palace here in Las Vegas.

The game was Queen's gambit, after the Russian stalwart, with a good record of comebacks, drew Barua away from the Semi-Slav option. Despite equal material, Barua's weak pawn structure resulted in a decisive advantage for Khalifman.

After losing the d5 pawn on the 29th move, Barua was further pushed back by Khalifman's pawn movements in the centre. An exchange of queens and rooks followed, and with Barua having a bishop for Khalifman's more active knight, things were bleak for the Indian as the game went into another marathon.

They played 60 moves the previous day and it went beyond this time. Khalifman inched towards queening the vital pawn and the inevitable resignation arrived after 67 moves.

The result left the two players alevel at 1-1, and they will now play a two-game tie-break with each game of 25 minutes. A further tie would mean a second set of even shorter games - of 15 minutes each - and then yet another tie will see a sudden-death, where White starts and gets four minutes and black five minutes for all moves plus 10 seconds inceremental time for each move.

The last resort will be a single game sudden-death, where white must win for even a draw will give the match to black.

The winner of the Barua-Khalifman tie will clash with Kamsky in the second round.

Khalifman's was not the only bounce-back story of the day. Vlastimil Babula turned tables on young Tal Shaked, while the Briton Tony Miles, reversed his first game loss against Ralf Akesson.

Sergey Dolmatoc, who was shocked by his loss to little-known Pavel Kotsur, found his form in time.

High profile wins included former World junior champion Joel Lautier, who won both his games against Watu Kobese, and Ulf Andersson, who squeezed a win from a drawn first game and then outplayed Mohammed Nagib in the second.

Other expected winners included Ivan Sokolov and Jan Ehlvest.

There are still 12 matches to played out and that includes Milov's round one first game.

Summary:
Of the 36 matches first round matches, 12 are still to be completed. Of the 12 matches still to be completed, one match still has one game left. Of the 24 matches completed, two were won by default.

Major upsets: Nick De Firmian losing to Mihail Kobalija; Utut Adianto going down to Daniel Fridman.

Comfortable winners: Joel Lautier, Ivan Sokolov, Jan Ehlvest.

Even easier winners: Hamdouchi and Leitao, as they won by default

Vadim Milov, the subject of many a discussion in Las Vegas, even as he played another tournament in hometown Biel, was perhaps the most relieved man. After forfeiting the first game to Bartlomiej Macieja, he arrived in time for the second game, which won. Then he also got the good news that his first round forfeiture had been reversed and the players will now play the second game of the two-game mini-match on the day when other tied players will figure in the tie-breakers on Monday.

Results in brief:
Round 1 (July 31-August 2nd, 1999) Matches to be decided by the tie-breaker: (results of the two games tied, the players stand at 1-1) Zubarev, Alexander - Stefansson, Hannes ½ ½ Barua, Dibyendu - Khalifman, Alexander 1-0 0-1 Asrian, Karen - Rodriguez, Andres 0-1 1-0 Akesson, Ralf - Miles, Anthony J 1-0 0-1 Nielsen, Peter Heine - Benjamin, Joel ½ ½ Shaked, Tal - Babula, Vlastimil 1-0 0-1 Dreev, Alexey - Zelcic, Robert ½ ½ Spraggett, Kevin - Yermolinsky, Alex ½ ½ Psakhis, Lev - Zapata, Alonso ½ ½ Dolmatov, Sergey - Kotsur, Pavel 0-1 1-0 Gurevich, Dmitry - Tiviakov, Sergei ½ ½

Incomplete match Macieja, Bartlomiej - Milov, Vadim --- 0-1 Game one will be played on Monday local time

Completed matches: Chiburdanidze, Maya - Akopian, Vladimir * 0-1 ½ Akopian moves up
Sokolov, Ivan* - Kudrin, Sergey 1-0 ½ Sokolov moves up
Ivanov, Alexander - Milos, Gilberto* 0-1 ½ Gilberto Milos moves up
Adianto, Utut - Fridman, Daniel* 0-1 0-1 Fridman moves up
Wahls, Matthias * - Cela, Altin 1-0 ½ Wahls moves up
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter * - Djuric, Stefan 1-0 1-0 Nisipeanu moves up
Ricardi, Pablo - Speelman, Jonathan S * ½ 0-1 Speelman moves up
Lautier, Joel* - Kobese, Watu 1-0 1-0 Lautier moves up
Andersson, Ulf * - Mohamed, Esam Ahmed Nagib 1-0 1-0 Andresson moves up
Tkachiev, Vladislav * - Hoffman, Alejandro 1-0 1-0 Tkachiev moves up
Feldman, Vladimir - Magem Badals, Jordi * 0-1 0-1 Feldman moves up
Antonio, Rogelio jr * - Kozak, Alexander 1-0 1-0 Antonio moves up
Ehlvest, Jaan * - Nijboer, Friso 1-0 ½ Ehlvest moves up
Aleksandrov, Aleksej * - Becerra Rivero, Julio 1-0 1-0 Alkesandrov moves up
Liang Chong - Dizdar, Goran * ½ 0-1 Dizdar moves up
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam - Bauer, Christian * ½ 0-1 Bauer moves up
Aronian, Levon * - Rozentalis, Eduardas 1-0 1-0 Aronian moves up
Gulko, Boris F* - Reinderman, Dimitri 1-0 ½ Gulko moves up
Bouaziz, Slim - Kotronias, Vasilios * 0-1 ½ Kotronias moves up
Peng Xiaomin * - Sadvakasov, Darmen 1-0 ½ Peng moves up
Kobalija, Mihail* - DeFirmian, Nick E ½ 1-0 Kobalija moves up
Al-Modiahki, Mohamad - Ponomariov, Ruslan * ½ 0-1 Ponomariov moves up

Default wins:
Hakki, Imad - Hamdouchi, Hichem * 0-1 0-1 Both wins by default - Hamdouchi moves up
Leitao, Rafael * - Bagheri, Amir 1-0 1-0 Both wins by default - Leitao moves up

Game 2 A Khalifman (2628) v D Barua (2550)
Queen's Gambit
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Nbd7 7. e3 Be7 8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O b6 10. Rc1 Bb7 11. Qe2 c5 12. Rfd1 Ne4 13. Bg3 Nxg3 14. hxg3 Nf6 15. dxc5 Bxc5 16. cxd5 exd5 17. Ba6 Qc8 18. Bxb7 Qxb7 19. Qb5 Rfd8 20. Rd3 Ne4 21. Rcd1 Nxc3 22. Rxc3 Rac8 23. a3 Bf8 24. Rcd3 Rc5 25. Qb3 Rd6 26. Nd4 Qd7 27. Ne2 Qf5 28. Nc3 Qg6 29. Nxd5 Qe6 30. Rd4 Rdc6 31. R4d2 Rc1 32. Qd3 Qe5 33. Qb3 Qe6 34. Qa4 R6c4 35. b4 a5 36. Rxc1 Rxc1+ 37. Rd1 Rxd1+ 38. Qxd1 axb4 39. axb4 Qe4 40. Qd4 Qb1+ 41. Kh2 b5 42. e4 Qe1 43. e5 Qe2 44. g4 Qe1 45. Kg3 Qe2 46. Nc3 Qb2 47. Nxb5 Qxb4 48. Qxb4 Bxb4 49. Kf4 Be1 50. f3 Kf8 51. Ke4 Ke7 52. Kd5 Bd2 53. Nd4 Bc1 54. Ne2 Bd2 55. Ng3 Bc1 56. Nh5 Kf8 57. Ke4 Bd2 58. f4 g6 59. Nf6 Bc1 60. Nd5 Bd2 61. f5 Bc1 62. Nf4 Kg7 63. Nd3 Ba3 64. f6+ Kh7 65. Kd5 g5 66. e6 fxe6+ 67. Kxe6 1-0 Black resigns.