Anand takes a beating in Round 1

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Anand takes a beating in Rd 1

Express News Service
The Indian Express
Friday, June 14, 2013

[Caption] Caruana countered Anand�s Ruy Lopez with the
Marshall attack.

Moscow - Viswanathan Anand's Tal Memorial campaign got
off to a poor start, with the Indian losing in 48 moves
against Fabiano Caruana in the first round on Thursday.
Magnus Carlsen outplayed Vladimir Kramnik in a drawn out
end game while Hikaru Nakamura was thrashed in 31 moves
by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

In order to determine the pairings for the tournament,
the players were engaged in a round robin Blitz
tournament on Wednesday, where Anand had finished an
excellent second, with 6.5 points from 9 rounds. Apart
from whatever confidence it might have given him, the
result also meant that Anand would play with white pieces
in five of nine games in the tournament proper.

The first of his whites came in the first round, but
Anand got nothing more than a token advantage from the
Ruy Lopez. Caruana answered with the aggressive Marshall
attack, sacrificing a pawn for active play. Anand, by
contrast was mostly penned within the last two ranks for
most of the game and soon had to give up the extra pawn.

However, his position by then had worsened and he was
fighting for the draw. Caruana had retained his bishop
pair and though he was running short on time, managed to
keep his advantage. Faced with centralised bishops and a
pawn roll on the king side, Anand's game unravelled
around the first time control. A series of mistakes saw
him go two pawns down and the World Champion resigned a
few moves down the line.

It is not for the first time that the Spanish opening has
cost Anand, with Nakamura beating him in the same line
last month at Norway Chess 2013. Also, Caruana had
troubled Anand earlier too, when he had beaten him in
Zurich earlier this year. With the win, Caruana's live
rating edged up to the 2800 mark.

Unorthodox variations

In another decisive game of the round, Kramnik
inexplicably gave up a drawn position deep in the end
game against Carlsen. The Norwegian chose the Trompowsky
variation, not often played at this level, setting the
tone for the game where both players went for unorthodox
variations. The position was fairly equal in the rook,
bishop and pawn endgame until Carlsen clinically
capitalised on Kramnik's late inaccuracies. Mamedyarov
took full toll of Nakamura's imprecise opening play and
broke through his defences with a spectacular piece
sacrifice.

Results, round one: Viswanathan Anand lost to Fabiano
Caruana, Magnus Carlsen bt Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru
Nakamura lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Boris Gelfand
drew with Sergey Karjakin, Dmitry Andreikin drew with
Alexander Morozevich.

Continues at:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/anand-takes-a-beating-in-rd-1/1128808/0

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

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