Anand Sweats In Round One
By Arvind Aaron


World champion Viswanathan Anand was made to sweat in round one by Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the Grand Slam Finals Tournament at Bilbao in northern Spain on September 2, 2008.

Teenaged sensation, Magnus Carlsen of Norway took the lead in the six-player tournament with an opening round win against Levon Aronian of Armenia. It is a six player double all-play-all. Carlsen lead by a two point margin. Nine rounds remain to be played. A win earns three points and draw one point and defeat zero points.

In the Marshall attack opening, Anand overlooked black's 19th move and lost a pawn. Ivanchuk who played the Marshall attack as black in the Ruy Lopez, had an attack and made the world champion make accurate moves before signing a draw on move 58.

Anand had a pawn deficit in a queen and rook ending when a draw was agreed upon. In the other game, Radjabov and Topalov drew. As reported earlier in this website, this event happened in the main square in a glass case and spectators could see the players through glass. This is one attempt to bring the audience for chess; rather, take chess to the audience!

The results (round one): V. Anand (Ind) 1 drew with V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1, T. Radjabov (Aze) 1 drew with V. Topalov (Bul) 1, L. Aronian (Arm) 0 lost to M. Carlsen (Nor) 3.