Favourites Suffer Defeats

By Arvind Aaron

Three lower rated players upstaging higher rated opponents happened for the first time in a super category tournament. Upsets galore in the sixth round of the MTel Masters Chess Tournament being played at Grand Hotel Sofia in Bulgaria on Wednesday.

After such an eventful day with all white players winning, Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine shot into sole lead with 3.5 points. Anand is left on minus one at 2.5 and the rest of the four players are tied for the second to fifth places with three points. Four rounds remain to be played in this category 20 tournament and still the event is wide open.

If any one, Anand, Adams or Kramnik lose a chess game it makes headlines. When all three of them lose on one day it gets locked in memory for long if not forever. Wednesday was one of those special days for the chess world.

Topalov went for violence at the board when he sacrificed a knight early in the game on the 14th move with the white pieces against Anand. Opinion differed on the sacrifice as some believed that Anand would walk away with the knight and the point. As the game developed, the sacrifice proved unnecessarily provoked by black. In the rook and minor pieces ending, Anand could have offered better resistance. He manoeuvred his knight which got trapped and he lost in 52 moves.

All the players who sacrificed a piece did not win though. Kramnik sacrificed a knight, then his own right to castle. Just when it looked like Kramnik having enough compensation, Ponomariov pulled up to win using the extra knight in 45 moves.

Judit Polgar scored her first victory of the tournament when she cashed in on Adams' aggressive play and pawn offer. In the minor piece ending her technique was good enough to nurse one extra pawn in 52 moves.

The tournament has warmed up considerably after such a decisive Wednesday. Defeated players, particularly Anand will want to make a comeback.

The results (round six): Veselin Topalov (Bul) 3 bt Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2.5, Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 3.5 bt. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 3, Judit Polgar (Hun) 3 bt Michael Adams (Eng) 3.

The moves:

White: GM Veselin Topalov - Black: GM Viswanathan Anand, round six, Queen's Indian defence, E15: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Nc3 c6 8.e4 d5 9.Qc2 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Bb7 11.Neg5 c5 12.d5 exd5 13.cxd5 h6 14.Nxf7 Kxf7 15.0-0-0 Bd6 16.Nh4 Bc8 17.Re1 Na6 18.Re6 Nb4 19.Bxb4 cxb4 20.Bc4 b5 21.Bxb5 Be7 22.Ng6 Nxd5 23.Rxe7+ Nxe7 24.Bc4+ Kf6 25.Nxh8 Qd4 26.Rd1 Qa1+ 27.Kd2 Qd4+ 28.Ke1 Qe5+ 29.Qe2 Qxe2+ 30.Kxe2 Nf5 31.Nf7 a5 32.g4 Nh4 33.h3 Ra7 34.Rd6+ Ke7 35.Rb6 Rc7 36.Ne5 Ng2 37.Ng6+ Kd8 38.Kf1 Bb7 39.Rxb7 Rxb7 40.Kxg2 Rd7 41.Nf8 Rd2 42.Ne6+ Ke7 43.Nxg7 Rxa2 44.Nf5+ Kf6 45.Nxh6 Rc2 46.Bf7 Rc3 47.f4 a4 48.bxa4 b3 49.g5+ Kg7 50.f5 b2 51.f6+ Kh7 52.Nf5 1-0.

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