Anand, Kramnik will be main stars

By Arvind Aaron

CHENNAI, JULY 10. Barely a fortnight since their famous rapid clash at Mainz, the World chess champion Viswanathan Anand and Braingames World chess champion Vladimir Kramnik will be the main stars of the new format 29th Sparkassen Chess-Meeting 2001 tournament which starts here at Dortmund from Thursday.

After testing and trying various formats, the one chosen for this year is a six-player double round-robin tournament. It ensures an even colour break among the six players as they play five opponents once with white and then with the black pieces.

There are several `firsts' to the tournament this time. It is the first category 21 tournament in Germany and the strongest classical tournament to be held outside of Spain. The participation of two World champions Anand and Kramnik adds significance and importance to this traditional tournament. Like events in Spain which sometimes had no Spanish player in top category tournaments, this year's Dortmund super category event doesn't have a German player. The highest ranked German player Christopher Lutz is below 2650 and his exclusion only does harm to his career in this top flight competition among six players in the world top ten.

A look at head-to-head player history would point to Anand as the favourite for he leads all five players and is the oldest of them. Second place at Wijk aan Zee and winner at Merida in Mexico, the 31-year old Indian should be looking forward to break Kramnik's hold over the Dortmund tournament.

Looking at tournament history, spectators would easily point the finger on Kramnik as the favourite. Referred as the `King of Dortmund', the just 26 turned defending champion has won four titles in the last five years. The next favourite for the public should be naturally Anand, the joint winner of the 1996 and 2001 editions.

Peter Leko, who won the 1999 edition and the seasoned Michael Adams will be the next seeds, although in rating terms it is the unpredictable Alexander Morozevich. Veselin Topalov will complete the field of six players and he is known for his fighting spirit even after reaching bland positions.

The spectators may not get what they got in the previous years, for this time only three games are on show. There may be dog days with several all drawn encounters: a problem which crops up when the number of players are reduced and the category raised.

To counter this, the organisers are doing a match for Dortmund local talent Arkadi Naiditch who will play a 10-game classical chess match against former World women's chess champion Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia. So, the auditorium is going to be filled to capacity.

Another attraction this year is the six game match between Dr. Robert Huebner and a PC Programme. It is hard for chess fans to forget the game Huebner played against Junior last year. He thought he was losing a pawn and resigned in an equal position!

Last year, Junior, former world PC category world chess champion programme was the star attraction. This time, the duo of Anand and Kramnik have reached the zenith of their career and their two encounters are going to be watched with eagerness. In the lone game they played last year at Dortmund, Anand lost a pawn with the black pieces, then, made a spirited comeback and was close to winning but collapsed by overlooking a tactical stroke. He was playing at lightning speed in Kramnik's time pressure. That helped Kramnik to tie with the Indian on points and even win the title on the tie-break scores.

The drawing abilities of both Anand and Kramnik are extraordinary. Kramnik once in an interview to The Sportstar said, `Chess is a drawish game.' When Anand was in trouble against Khalifman in the FIDE World chess championship match in New Delhi last year with the white pieces, one comment from a chess player in an online site was, `Vishy's a slippery fish, he'll escape with a draw.' And he did.

The pairings were made available long back in typical tournament tradition. Anand has a good draw towards the end of the tournament and should he take an early lead like last year, it should benefit him.

The form of most players would matter. Most of them had played a variety of games like rapid, blitz, Advanced Chess and Fischer Random. The return to classical chess would benefit the players who adjusts quickly to the traditional way the game was invented and intended to be played.

The entry for spectators with headphones and grandmaster commentary is DM 12 (Rs. 252) per day. Several hundred spectators watch chess each year and it is always held in a dark theatre with boards projected on the screen. Germany has the largest number of organised chess players in the world. For example, in the July 2001 rating list, there are 4,842 Germans on the Elo list, ahead of Russia at 4,435. Asian giants, India has 826 Elo rated players in the same period and China just 237 players.

Play starts at 2 p.m. CET (Central European Time) which is 5.30 p.m. IST (Indian Standard Time) and each session lasts seven hours. FIDE's new time control is not used in any of the super category tournaments this year, be it at Wijk aan Zee, or Linares, or Merida or Astana.

Besides Anand in the main tournament, there are several Indians in the Open tournament. Three former National champions, GM Abhijit Kunte, IMs Devaki Prasad and Ponnuswamy Konguvel are competing in the Open tournament for the first time. There is a prize fund of 15,000 DM (Rs. 3.15 lakhs), capped with a first prize of 2,000 DM in this event. There is also a limited appearance fee in the Open.

The events will come to a close on July 22, Sunday with the closing ceremony at the Sparkasse Bank premises. July 17 is a free day and Kramnik, Topalov will give simultaneous displays.

On Wednesday the players staying at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza would talk at the opening press conference in their Hotel itself and the first round would begin on Thursday.

Anand's pairings:

July 12: Morozevich v Anand, July 13: Anand v Adams, July 14: Topalov v Anand, July 15: Leko v Anand, July 16: Anand v Kramnik. July 17: free day, July 18: Anand v Morozevich, July 19: Adams v Anand, July 20: Anand v Topalov, July 21: Kramnik v Anand, July 22: Anand v Leko.

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