Viswanathan Anand began his quest for a fifth successive Corsica Masters title in Bastia, France with comfortable wins in the pre-quarter finals and then the quarter-finals.
In the semi-finals, Anand will meet the French youngster, Etienne Bacrot, while the other semi-final will feature Sergei Rublevsky against Alexnader Motylev.
In the first round, which was the pre-quarters with 16 players, Anand drew the first game with Nenad Sulava of Croatia. But in the second game of the mini match, Anand outplayed his lesser known rival and cruised into the quarters.
The quarter-final clash featured the experienced Mikhail Gurevich a former Soviet player, who now plays for Belgium. Anand wiped out Gurevich in both games to complete a 2-0 win.
Two big surprise results in the quarters saw the exit of fancied Alexei Shirov at the hands of Alexander Motylev who won in the tie-breaker. The first games in regulation were tied 1-1 and in tie-breaker Motylev won 1.5-0.5.
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Anand has won this event four-times in a row from 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. He is often called the 'Napoleon' and the "Lance of Chess" in Corsica.
Anand, Topalov, Shirov and Bacrot were seeded into the pre-quarters finals, where 12 qualifiers joined them. The games are all played in the rapid chess format. In last year's final, Anand beat Topalov 4-2 in the final, with a 2-0 verdict in the final tiebreak.
Results:
Quarter-finals: Gurevich lost to Anand 0-2; Alon Greenfeld lost to Etienne Bacrot 0.5.1.5; Alexander Motylev beat Alexei Shirov 2.5-1.5; Sergei Rublevsky beat Veselin Topalov 2-0.
Pre-quarter finals: Anand beat Nenad Sulava 1.5-0.5; Christian Bauer lost to Mikhail Gurevich 0-2; Vadim Milov lost to Alon Greenfeld 0.5-1.5; Csaba Balogh lost to Etienne Bacrot 0-2; Alexei Shirov beat Zhang Pengxiang 2.5-1.5; Artur Yusupov lost to Alexander Motylev 0.5-1.5; Sergei Rublevsky beat Arkadij Naiditsch 2-0; Amir Bagheri lost to Veselin Topalov 0-2.
