Viswanathan Anand lived upto his billing, crushing Judit Polgar with the black pieces, in the opening round of the World Chess Championship in San Luis, Argentina, on Wednesday.

Anand shares the lead with Veselin Topalov, who scored a win over Hungarian Peter Leko with black pieces after a slow start.

The other two games were drawn, though Rustam Kasimzhanov almost made it three wins for black pieces against Alexander Morozevich.

Peter Svidler drew with Michael Adams in 24 moves.

The tournament started with FIDE president Kirsan Iljumzhinov making the ceremonial opening move 1.e4 in the game featuring Polgar and Anand.

Preparations for the tournament went on till very late and the players had little time to sit on the board and gather their thoughts before the games began.

When the first round did get underway, Polgar, the finest women's player ever, faced the Caro-Kann from the Indian star.

Polgar, who played a lot of games against Anand in last two years, beginning with their exciting eight-match clash in Mainz in 2003, looked a little tentative to attack in the beginning. As things began to sour for her she played safe, but it was too late. She castled on the queen side despite her pawn being advanced to a4. Still it seemed the best in circumstances.

Anand steadily dismantled Polgar's defences and left her with static weaknesses. Polgar did have an open g-file, but Anand was closing in. Polgar also went into time trouble and then Anand attacked the queenside and came up with a knight sacrifice on c3. Polgar did manage to avert that but with the clock and position against her she resigned.

In a Sicilian-Najdorf, Topalov, as has become his style, played a risky line but Leko anticipated this. Leko missed a chance to tear into Topalov's defences, but later on he allowed an exchange of queens and his initiative was lost. His dubious position thereafter and time problem saw him resign on 40th move.

Morozevich wanted to push for a win with white against Kasimdhzanov in another Sicilian Najdorf. But that attempt on part of Moro almost backfired. Fortunately, he held on for a draw with precise play and got half a point in 54 moves. Svidler and Adams were the first to draw in the Petroff Defence in 24 moves.

Results:

Round 1: Svidler drew with Adams; Leko lost to Topalov; Polgar lost to Anand; Morozevich drew with Kasimdzhanov.

Round 1 standings: 1. Anand and Topalov 1.0; 3. Adams, Svidler, Kasimdzhanov and Morozevich 0.5; 7. Leko and Polgar 0.

Pairings for round 2: Adams v Polgar, Kasimdzhanov v Svidler, Leko v Morozevich, Topalov v Anand.

The moves:

Judit Polgar vs Viswanathan Anand
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Bd3 Ngf6 6. Nf3 Nxe4 7. Bxe4 Nf6 8. Bd3 Bg4 9. Be3 e6 10. c3 Bd6 11. h3 Bh5 12. Qe2 Qa5 13. a4 O-O 14. Qc2 Bxf3 15. gxf3 Qh5 16. O-O-O Nd5 17. Kb1 b5 18. Rdg1 f6 19. axb5 cxb5 20. Bc1 Rab8 21. Qe2 Rfe8 22. Qe4 Kh8 23. h4 f5 24. Qe2 Qf7 25. Rg2 Bf4 26. Rhg1 Rg8 27. Be3 Qd7 28. Qd2 Bd6 29. Bc2 Qb7 30. Bg5 b4 31. c4 b3 32 . Bd3 Bb4 33. Qe2 Qa6 34. Bh6 Nc3+ 35. bxc3 Bxc3 36. Kc1 Qa3+ 37. Kd1 Qa1+ 38. Bc1 b2 39. Qe3 Bxd4 40. Qd2 bxc1=Q+ 41. Qxc1 Qa2 white resigned.