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Vadim Milov from Biel, Switzerland shocked top seed and five time champion Viswanathan Anand 3-1 in the finals of the Corsica Masters Chess Tournament that concluded at Bastia in France on Nov 5.
Anand pulled back after losing the first rapid game with the white pieces to win the second one with the black pieces using the Benko Gambit. The Russian born Milov was lucky in the first tie-break game and sealed the match in his favour after Anand blundered in a rook and bishop ending overlooking the back rank in the second game.
Anand had defeated Tomas Markowski (Pol) 2-0, Mikhail Gurevich (Bel) 2-0 and Michael Adams (Eng) 3-1 on course to the finals. The event was held at the French island of Corsica for a prize fund of 100,000 Euros.
Two other Indian players took part. Krishnan Sasikiran lost to Zoltan Almasi of Hungary in the pre-quarter finals. His Breyer variation of the Ruy Lopez was crushed by the opponent and the Indian lost a piece for no compensation. Almasi won the match 1.5-0.5. Ebenezer Joseph played in the Open and did not qualify for the 16-player knock out phase.
In the Open, Sasikiran had the satisfaction of having beaten Vadim Milov while both players qualified and advanced to the knock out stage. Ebenezer Joseph nearly held Dortmund champion Arkady Naiditch of Germany to a draw.
Important games are in the game viewer. (link)
http://www.chess-mate.com/2005/bastia.htm
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