Viswanathan Anand delivered the first blow of the Sparkassen Dortmund Super Grandmasters chess championships in Dortmund, Germany, as he gave a fantastic display in a fairly complex game to beat Peter Svidler in the second round of the tournament. The rest of the games ended in draws.
Though Anand was the only one to land a win, the other games were also interesting in their own way. The two youngsters, 18-year-old Arkadij Naiditsch and 14-year-old Sergey Karjakin held their own and drew with Sergey Rublevsky and defending champion Viroel Bologan respectively.
The Anand-Svidler game was in the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian. Anand looked good from the start and Svidler in an attempt to get some counterplay sacrificed his backward d-pawn. Anand gladly took it and from thereon kept applying pressure with highly active king's knight.
Anand, who is tremendous at calculating positions at great speed, changes the pace of the game once he is up. With his brilliant skills at break-neck speed, he had Svidler's citadel in a mess. His knight with great mobility had Svidler in a spin. And he finally gave it for a bishop, but was a clear pawn up.
After the exchange of queens in the rook endgame, Anand outplayed Svidler. Even though the Russian champion fought well, Anand's supremacy was never in doubt as he came through in 53 moves.
In Peter Leko's clash with Vladimir Kramnik, the latter kept threatening to build up pressure in the center but Leko handled it very well. The Queen's Indian game ended in truce after 30 moves, but it was very interesting.
Bologan, the surprise winner here last year, again gave the fans and sponsors their money's worth as he tried to outwit teen star Sergey Karjakin in a knight versus bishop endgame. The defending champion from Moldova did everything he could but his young opponent made no mistakes. He held out for a creditable draw in 68 moves of a Petroff defence. In two days Karjakin has drawn with black against the classical world champion Kramnik and held against the reigning Dortmund champion, Bologan. Next he faces Leko.
The Naiditsch-Rublevsky game was one of attack and counterattack The German teenager, Naiditsch developed a strong position, but Rublevsky parried the attack well. The draw came in 39 moves of the Sicilian Paulsen.
Results and standings:
Group A: Anand beat Svidler; Naiditsch drew with Rublevsky.
Group A Standings (after Round 2): 1. Anand 1.5; 2. Naiditsch and Rublevsky 1 each; Svidler 0.5;
Group B: Kramnik drew with Leko; Karjakin drew with Bologan.
Group B Standings (after Round 2): 1. Kramnik, Leko, Karjakin and Bologan (all 1 each)