Anand to meet Shirov in Teheran finals

Anand to meet Shirov in Teheran finals
Hari Hara Nandanan

New Delhi, December 15: It will be Viswanathan Anand versus Alexie Shirov of Spain in the World Chess Championship finals in Teheran next week. The Indian Grandmaster expectedly won the match against Michael Adams of England 2.5-1.5 after drawing the fourth game on Friday and was immediately whisked away for television interviews.

Shirov played an interesting game against 17-year-old Alexander Grischuk of Russia and split the point in 35 moves after four hours to score a 2.5-1.5 win in the match.

On the other hand, Anand needed only a draw in the fourth game to qualifyfor the finals and he started in right earnest in the Ruy Lopez. On the seventh move, the Indian gave his white bishop and captured Adams' black bishop. Anand had control of the Queenside as he pushed the pawns there and by move 21 the Queens were swapped. Anand, with a slight advantage, played cautiously and exchanged the rook also to enter a rook and knight versus bishop ending by move 31.

After 37 moves, it was a dead draw which puts Anand into his second FIDE World Championship final. The first game in Teheran starts on December 20.Shirov, with black, had to face some resistance in a complicated game in the Petroff Defence against Grischuk, who had to win today to take the match intotiebreakers. Grischuk broke through the Queen-knight file and took his rook out in the seventh rank. But then the rook remained there without any threats. By exchanging Queens on move 23, Shirov made his intentions of drawing the game though his passed pawn on the Queenside was to be stopped in the second rank.

After the 27th move, it was a rook and opposite coloured bishop ending. Shirov got the draw by repeating his rook move.

Xie retains world title
IN the women's section, Xie Jun of China retained her world women's chess crown with a comfortable 2.5-1.5 win over compatriot Qin Kanying in the World Women's Championship finals on Friday.

Xie was better in the fourth game today with black pieces but she needed only a draw to retain her title that she first won in 1991. She had beaten Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia to take the world title to China, then beat Nana Loseliani of Georgia in 1993 to retain the title. However, she lost her title match to Zsuzsa Polgar of Hungary in 1996. After Zsuzsa refusedto defend the title, she beat Alisa Galliamova in the finals in Shenyang last year.

"It was tough that I had to pay two World Championships in two years," Xie said. "But here I faced no resistance at all. The fact that I playedanother Chinese in the final, took the pressure away from me."

Xie thanked the Chinese Government for the help they gave her and felt India and China were about to take over world chess in the near future."In this championship, I did not have any pressure at all. It was just easy," she said.

Qin and Xie played the Ruy Lopez for the fourth time and reached a Queen and rook versus Queen, bishop and knight ending with Qin having two extra pawns for the two minor pieces of Xie. Xie then gave her knight to force perpetual checks with the Queen after 45 moves.

Anand-Adams (Game 4)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Bc5 6.c3 b5 7.d4 ba4 8.dc5 Qe7 9.Qa4 Qc5 10.Be3 Qe7 11.h3 0-0 12.Nd2 Bb7 13.b4 h6 14.Rb1 d6 15.c4 Qe6 16.Qc2 Ne7 17.a4 Ne4 18.Ne4 Qg6 19.Nd2 f5 20.Ng3 f4 21.Qg6 Ng6 22.Ne4 fe3 23.fe3 Nh4 24.Rf8+ Kf8 25.Rf1+ Ke8 26.g3 Ng6 27.Kf2 Nf8 28.Ke2 Nd7 29.Rc1 Nf6 30.Kd3 Ne4 31.Ne4 Kd7 32.Rf1 Ke6 33.Rf2 Bc6 34.Nc3 Be8 35.e4 Bg6 36.Nd5Rc8 37.a5 c6 0.5-0.5