Anand reaches semi-finals

Defending champion Vishwanathan Anand cruised into the semi-finals of the World chess championship with a swift draw against Grandmaster Alexey Shirov of Spain in the second game of the quarter-finals at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow on Friday.

Playing black, Anand employed the French defence and went for the safe Rubenstein variation wherein, in his own words, "white has to struggle hard to get a substantial advantage. However, white can go all out but that's risky too".

Shirov decided against taking undue risks in the opening though he needed a victory to force the match into the tie-break stage, having lost his first game of the two games mini-match on Thursday.

Anand was on familiar territory and produced a new move on his 10th turn, aiming at rapid development of his pieces. By the 15th move he had exchanged a couple of minor pieces and had a comfortable position on the queenside where Shirov's pawn majority did not look good enough.

Playing simple and enterprising chess, Anand almost forced the exchange of queens and Shirov knew that he had virtually lost the match. The shadow boxing continued for some more time and Anand successfully exerted pressure on the queenside pawns to maintain the balance in the position.

When Shirov was completely at loss and could not fathom how to proceed further, he offered the draw on the 32nd move.

The draw gave Anand a 1.5-0.5 victory.

This was Shirov's third loss to Anand in a World championship match. In 1997 at Groningen, Anand beat him 1.5-0.5 while last year in the final at Tehran, Anand won 3.5-0.5 in a six-game match that lasted only till the fourth.

"Life never changes in this world, Vishy always beats me," said a dejected Shirov after losing the match.

On his consecutive victories against Shirov, Anand said, "Yeah, somehow I have a very good score against him... nevertheless he is one of the top players in the world today.

"Every time I have to play him its best to forget the past records and get on with the game on hand.

"It was quite easy in today's game, I just sat and defended not allowing him much to do."

The other three matches in the men’s section, as also the two women’s semi-finals were all extended into the tie-breaker.

In the semi-finals, the NIIT brand ambassador will meet the winner of the Joel Lautier versus Vassily Ivanchuk clash. Both the Lautier-Ivanchuk games ended in draws.

The winners of the two semi-finals will clash in the title match to be held in Moscow from January 16.

The other quarter-finals featuring Boris Gelfand and Peter Svidler and Ruslan Ponmariov and Evegeny Bareev also had two draws.

The tie-breakers will be played later in the night.

In the women’s semi-finals, Alexandra Kosteniuk hit back with a win in the second game after losing the first to China’s Xu Yuhua. The match now goes into a tie-breaker.

In the other match, Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia, a former world champion, played out a second draw with China’s Zhu Chen.

Anand, V v Shirov, A
Round 5, game 2

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Bd3 c5 7. O-O cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nxe4 9. Bxe4 Nf6 10. Bf3 Be7 11. Nb5 O-O 12. Bf4 Bd7 13. c4 Bc6 14. Qe2 Bxf3 15. Qxf3 Qb6 16. Rad1 a 6 17. Bc7 Qc5 18. Bd6 Bxd6 19. Nxd6 b5 20. Qe3 Qxe3 21. fxe3 b xc4 22. Nxc4 h6 23. Rd4 Rfb8 24. Rfd1 a5 25. Kf2 Kh7 26. R1d2 a4 27. Kf3 Ra7 28. e4 Rb4 29. Nd6 Rb8 30. Nc4 Rb4 31. Nd6 Rb8 32. Rc4 draw agreed. PTI Cor ABH JR 12072007 D NNNN

Earlier reports
Anand beats Shirov in first game
Anand beats Dreev to enter quarters
Anand faces tough road ahead
Quick draw for Anand in round 4
Anand through to last 16
Anand settles for draw, Van Wely loses
Anand enters third round
Anand scores quick win
Anand moves into second round
Anand wins second game
Anand shocked in opening round