Anand advances into semis

Defending champion Viswanathan Anand moved into the semi-finals of the World Cup chess tournament with an easy victory over Vladimir Malakhov of Russia in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Anand, who had settled for a draw in the first game of the quarter-finals on Tuesday, defeated his opponennt in the second to win by a 1.5-0.5 margin.

It was a tactical game involving the Sicilian defence in dragon variation and Anand outplayed Malakhov in an advantageous endagame with very active pieces.

"It is nice that the draw did not take place which would have forced another tie-breaker. The moment my two-way attack met with a little challenge, I knew that I would be going for a result and not for the draw," he said.

Anand's board had all the trappings of an exciting game imbibed with deception and blitzkrieg moves as both the players tried to lure each other into a trap.

"I tried to provoke him by laying some dubious looking moves which he promply turned down and created a situation where we were equal on material though there was a little edge for me," said Anand.

It was, however, in the endgame that the Indian showed his true class by a two-pronged strategy which saw him placing his pieces in very active positions and immobilising his opponents' pieces.

"Though we were more are less equally placed at the endgame which could have resulted in a draw, I had a slight advantage of an active rook which clinched the deal," Anand said.

Anand kept his opponent's passed 'E' pawn in check throughout and launched his tirade bringing even his king into play. The former world champion also succeeded in immobilising his opponent's rook on the 'h' file and pushed his 'a' pawn forward which paved the way for his resounding victory.

Unable to control the passed 'A' pawn which was threatening to become queen, the Russian resigned.

In another quarter-final match, Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan drew with Ye Jiang Chun to enter into semi-finals. Kasimdzhanov had defeated Chun in the first game.

Koneru Humpy, who had won her first game yesterday, lost Li Ruofan of China in the second game and the two would play the tie breaker.

Nigel Short of England and Alexander Dreev of Russia also drew their matches to go into the tie-breaker.

Earlier reports
Day 6: Humpy scores; Anand settles for a draw
Day 5: Anand squeezes into last eight
Day 4: Anand, Humpy win easily
Day 3: Anand back in contention
Day 2: Sasikiran shocks Anand
Day 1: Meenakshi beats world champ; Anand splits point