Anand makes his Mexican debut

By Arvind Aaron

MERIDA (MEXICO), MAY 15. World chess champion Viswanathan Anand will be competing in his first classical chess tournament in four months when he plays his first career game in Mexico on Wednesday.

This tournament, which was won by Alexei Shirov last year, is tougher this year with the participation of the former FIDE World champion from Russia, Alexander Khalifman, and Nigel Short of England, besides the reigning world champion Anand. The local interest will be Grandmaster Gilberto Hernandez.

It is a four-player double round robin tournament. Anand has not faced any of these players this year in classical chess. Against Khalifman he won thrice last year at Linares, Dortmund and Shenyang.

Anand's score against Short is good and he should be a big favourite to win his first tournament after winning the world chess title in Teheran last December. Importantly, Anand has the knack of escaping from tight corners against Khalifman. This happened in important title competitions at Groningen 1997 and New Delhi 2000.

Not having played for a long time, Khalifman should be fully prepared on the theoretical side. Anand had the whole of April to prepare for this event. Briton Nigel Short, who has been living in Greece for the last eight years, should be using his practical playing power which made him world championship challenger in 1993.

Any finish other than the title will be a mediocre show by Anand, hence the pressure should be on him.

Gilberto Hernandez would be gaining valuable exposure in this super category tournament.

This six-round tournament, named after Carlos Torre, will conclude on May 23. There will be one free day after three rounds.

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