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Anand to clash with Karpov for trophy
Former World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Anatoly Karpov will clash in the final of the Eurotel World Chess tournament on
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 08:27 AM IST
Read Time: 1 min
Prague:
Former World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Anatoly Karpov will battle it out in the final of the Eurotel World Chess tournament here tomorrow. Anand avenged his last year's defeat to Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk in the World Chess championship in Moscow pipping Ivanchuk 1.5-0.5 in the blitz games after the rapid games of the semi-final match ended in a 1-1 deadlock last night.
Karpov's dream run continued when he outsmarted Latvian born Spanish GM Alexei Shirov 2-0 in the blitz games. The Indian ace dished out a mixture of attack and defence as he scaled past Ivanchuk, who had upset World No. 1 Gary Kasparov in the quarterfinals.
After holding Ivanchuk with black in the first blitz game Anand was at his tactical best in the second game. He employed one of the popular variations in the Sicilian Classical and gained control of the light squares with excellent manoeuvering of his Bishop.
The rook and minor pieces endgame arrived soon but Ivanchuk had few problems on his queenside with his weakened pawns. The Ukrainian allowed Anand a passed pawn who won a piece on the 53rd move. Ivanchuk struggled for survival in the next ten moves before giving up. (PTI)
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Chess
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