Anand, Kramnik Ignite Event
By Arvind Aaron

World No.1 Viswanathan Anand and World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia ignited the World Chess Championship by posting round two wins at Mexico City on September 14. Anand and Kramnik are leading with 1.5/2 and face each other in the most important game of the 8-player double all-play-all. Anand has white and play starts at 00.30 past midnight on Saturday/Sunday at http://partidas.chessmexico.com  For those not knowing Spanish, "partidas" means "Games" in English.

Anand, the Chennai-born player bottled up a rook of Levon Aronian with the black pieces to win a 41-move thriller from a Semi-Slav. Wins with black are a major bonus and it is also perhaps due to his high understanding of the opening and skills in finishing off the advantage provided by his sharp opening play. The powerful new move by Anand on the 17th turn attempted to nullify white's advantage. After winning the rook for knight advantage, Anand wrapped up the point in his typical speedy style.

Kramnik won a game with apparently very high level opening preparation. A piece sacrifice on move 13 left countryman Morozevich puzzled as he crashed into defeat in 27 moves. Kramnik had white and it was a Catalan opening. The other two games ended in draws. Peter Leko has started the event with two blacks and drawn both. Kramnik started with two whites but colours even out later as each player faces every other player twice, once with white and once with black.

For live games please visit http://partidas.chessmexico.com  and the official site is www.chessmexico.com  We have seen eight of the       56 games which are to happen in Mexico City. Leko played the Marshall with black and certainly the more of them are to happen.

The results (round two): V.Kramnik (Rus) 1.5 bt A.Morozevich (Rus) 0.5, L.Aronian (Arm) 0.5 lost to V.Anand (Ind) 1.5, P.svidler (Rus) 1 drew P.Leko (Hun) 1, Boris Gelfand (Isr) 1 drew Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 1. Pairing for round three on Sep 15: Anand v Kramnik, Grischuk v Aronian, Leko v Gelfand, Morozevich v Svidler.

Vijay Kumar Spoke to Viswanathan Anand immediately after his victory

Q. Anand a novely in the begining surprised Aronianwhich ultimately made him to surrender, what was this novelty ?

Anand : I think it was more or less a game which revolved around c5. It is a very interesting idea which we found just here. Nielsen suggested it just 3 days ago . And sometime if you surprise your opponent that is as much as that of playing a lot of good moves because than your opponent has to deal with a lot of problems on the board.I think he played Nd5 fairly quickly but than he missed the plan of bishop e5 or bishop e7 or may be he under estimated the plan.

Photo Courtesy by Vijayakumar