Anand shocked in opening round

Defending champion Vishwanathan Anand suffered a shocking defeat, going down to lowly-rated Olivier Touzane of France with white pieces in the opening round of the World chess championship in Moscow on Tuesday.

Two of the four Indian girls also lost their opening games, as Nisha Mohota and Aarthie Ramaswamy emerged as the only Indian winners on the first day of the championship.

Touzane, with an Elo rating of 2382, is one of the eight players who qualified for the event through the worldwide Internet championship.

Indeed, the form book was thrown out of the window as, despite playing with the favourable colour, the tournament favourite and top seed was forced to bite the dust by an opponent ranked the lowest in the 128-player field in the knock-out competion.

Anand will now have to win the second game and the tie-break against Touzane to stay in contention for the title.

India suffered another setback when Dibyendu Barua lost to formidable Grandmaster Joel Lautier of France.

Playing white in the first game of the two-game mini-match, Anand opened with his favourite king pawn and was up against the fashionable Petroff defence that is employed at the top level quite frequently.

The middlegame was fiercely fought as Anand gave an exchange for two pawns to get his pieces rolling on the queenside, but the Olivier was quite up to the task as he brought his rooks out in the open to corner the dangerous Anand pawn on the seventh rank.

The credits were soon stolen from Anand as Olivier got in to the groove on both flanks and extended his play to the king side, wherein his timely return of exchange netted him a winning queen and pawns endgame.

Anand soon found the ice melting under his feet and there was no chance in his position when he called it a day on the 39th move.

However, India's other players did well to finish with draws.

Young Indian Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna (2522) drew with Alexander Beliavsky (2659) of Slovakia after 33 moves in his first game while Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran (2589) was also forced to split the point after drawing with Grandmaster Vereslav Eingorn (2598) of the Ukraine after 25 moves.

Intenational Master Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2464) came up with a creditable performance to hold GM Alexander Khalifman (2699) of Russia to a draw after 22 moves.

Khalifman had won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 1999 and lost to Vishwanathan Anand in the quarter-finals at the last year's championship in Delhi.

The second games will be played on Wednesday followed by the tie-breaks, if required.

In rounds 1 to 5, each match will be played over two games and the winner of a match will be the first player to score 1.5 or more points.

Many of the top seeds were hard-pressed to win their opening games. Two early successes, however, were Alexi Shirov, who beat Aimen Rizouk of Algeria and Peter Svidler of Russia, who accounted for Alejandro Hoffman of Argentina.

Nisha Mohota scored a fine win over Woman Grandmaster Tatiana Stepovaia-Diachenko of Russia in the first game. Nisha needs only a draw to advance to the second round.

Nisha, playing with white, moved into a good advantage early in the middlegame stage after the game started out from a Dutch defense.

Nisha profited from an ill-advised queen exchange that her opponent went in for. That was on the 40th move and from there it was Nisha's game. Playing good positional chess nisha got her win duly after 55 moves.

Nisha said, ''I think I got a good position after the opening and she just could not hold the pressure in the middlegame.''

Former World under-18 girls champion, Aarthie Ramaswamy defeated Georgian Nino Khurtsidze in another first round game.

India's best woman hope at these championships, WGM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi lost to Polish player Joanna Dworakowska.

Viji actually got into a good position in the Dutch defense with white pieces, then succumbed to a good tactical plan from Dworakowska.

In the middle game, Viji erred and lost a pawn and with it slowly the game slipped away.

Pallavi Shah, who came through to the World championships with a win the zonals in Colombo, went down to WGM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in a Sicilian Rossolimo game. Pallavi had black pieces.

Pallavi was outplayed right from the opening as Stefanova rolled her king side pawns to full effect.

The moves:
Round 1, Game 1
White: Vishwanathan Anand - India (2770)
Black: Olivier Touzane - France (2360)
Result: 0-1
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. c4 Nf6 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Re1 Be6 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. a3 Bf6 13. Be4 h6 14. Bc2 Nxc3 15. bxc3 Bc4 16. Nd2 Bd5 17. Rb1 Bg5 18. c4 Bxd2 19. cxd5 Bxe1 20. dxc6 Ba5 21. Qd3 g6 22. cxb7 Rb8 23. Bxh6 Re8 24. Qf3 Re6 25. Bb3 Rf6 26. Qg4 Rb6 27. Bg5 Qe8 28. Qf3 R8xb7 29. h4 Qd7 30. g4 Rxb3 31. Rxb3 Rxb3 32. Qxb3 Qxg4+ 33. Kf1 Qxd4 34. Be3 Qa1+ 35. Kg2 Bb6 36. Bxb6 axb6 37. Qg3 Qc1 38. h5 Qc6+ 39. Kf1 Qh1+.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Joel Lautier - France (2653)
Black: Dibyendu Barua - India (2360)
Result: 1-0
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c6 4. Qc2 Nf6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5+ 7. Nbd2 Ne4 8. Bf4 Be7 9. cxd5 exd5 10. Bd3 Ndf6 11. O-O Bf5 12. Nb3 Qd8 13. Ne5 Bg6 14. f3 Nd6 15. Nxg6 hxg6 16. e4 Nh5 17. Bd2 g5 18. e5 Nb5 19. g3 Qb6 20. Be3 Nc7 21. Nc5 a5 22. Rac1 Ne6 23. Nxe6 fxe6 24. f4 gxf4 25. Bg6+ Kd7 26. gxf4 Raf8 27. f5 exf5 28. Rxf5 Nf4 29. Bxf4 Qxd4+ 30. Kh1 Rxf5.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Alexander Khalifman - Russia (2699)
Black: Surya Shekhar Ganguly - India (2464)
Result: 1/2-1/2
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. exd4 Bc5 5. Be3 Qf6 6. c3 Nge7 7. Bc4 Ne5 8. Be2 Qg6 9. O-O d6 10. Kh1 Qxe4 11. Nd2 Qg6 12. Bh5 Qd3 13. Be2 Qg6 14. Nb5 O-O 15. Nxc7 Rb8 16. Nc4 Bh3 17. Rg1 Nxc4 18. Bxc4 Bxe3 19. fxe3 Bf5 20. Nd5 Rbe8 21. Nf4 Qh6 22. Bd3.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Alexander Beliavsky - Slovakia (2659)
Black: Pendalya Harikrishna - India (2522)
Result: 1/2-1/2
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8. Qxc4 b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bd2 Be4 11. Qc1 Nbd7 12. Ba5 Rc8 13. Nbd2 Ba8 14. Qc2 Qe8 15. b4 Nb8 16. a3 Nc6 17. Nb3 (01:04:01) Bd6 18. Rac1 e5 19. e3 Nxa5 20. Nxa5 e4 21. Nd2 Bd5 22. Nb1 c6 23. Bh3 Rc7 24. Nc3 Qe7 25. Nxd5 cxd5 26. Qa2 h5 27. Rc2 g6 28. Rfc1 Kg7 29. Rxc7 Bxc7 30. Nc6 Qe8 31. Na7 Qb8 32. Nc6 Qe8 33. Na7 Qb8.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Vereslav Eingorn - Ukraine (2598)
Black: Krishnan Sasikiran - India (2589)
Result: 1/2-1/2
1. d4 e6 2. c4 Bb4+ 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. Ngf3 d6 5. g3 Nc6 6. Bg2 e5 7. O-O a5 8. d5 Ne7 9. e4 Bd7 10. Ne1 b5 11. b3 Bc3 12. Rb1 b4 13. a4 h5 14. h4 Ng4 15. Ndf3 c6 16. Bb2 Bxb2 17. Rxb2 cxd5 18. exd5 O-O 19. Ng5 Qb6 20. Bf3 Rac8 21. Ng2 g6 22. Re1 Kg7 23. Rd2 Ng8 24. Qa1 N8f6 25. Ne3.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Nisha Mohota - India (2262)
Black: Tatiana Stepovaia-Diachenko - Russia (2435)
Result: 1-0
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6 4. e3 Bd6 5. Bd3 f5 6. Nge2 Nf6 7. Qc2 Ne4 8. O-O O-O 9. f3 Nxc3 10. Nxc3 Na6 11. a3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 b5 13. Be2 Qc7 14. f4 Bb7 15. Bf3 Qe7 16. Bd2 Nc7 17. e4 fxe4 18. Bxe4 h6 19. Rae1 Qd7 20. Qb3 Nd5.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Antoaneta Stefanova - Bulgaria (2473)
Black: Pallavi Shah - India (2172)
Result: 1-0
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. Bxc6+ bxc6 5. d3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. Qd2 e5 8. Nge2 Ne7 9. Bh6 O-O 10. h4 f5 11. h5 f4 12. hxg6 Nxg6 13. g3 Kh8 14. O-O-O Qe7.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi - India (2405)
Black: Joanna Dworakowska - Poland (2358)
Result: 0-1
1. d4 f5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 g6 4. c3 Bg7 5. Nd2 O-O 6. Qb3+ d5 7. Nh3 c6 8. Nf3 Qe8 9. Nf4 e6 10. h4 Ne4 11. Nd3 Nd7 12. Bf4 b6 13. O-O c5 14. Qc2 Bb7 15. Rfc1 Qe7 16. Nde5 Ndf6 17. Nd3 Ng4 18. Nfe5 Bxe5 19. dxe5 c4 20. f3 cxd3 21. exd3 Ne3 22. Bxe3 Nxg3 23. Bg5 Qg7 24. Qd2.

Round 1, Game 1
White: Nino Khurtsidze - Georgia (2450)
Black: Aarthie Ramaswamy - India (2249)
Result: 0-1
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O Nc6 7. d5 Na5 8. Qa4 c5 9. Bd2 b6 10. Bc3 Bd7 11. Qc2 b5 12. cxb5 Bxb5 13. Na3 Bd7 14. e4 Ng4 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. h3 Nf6 17. Rad1 Rb8 18. e5 dxe5 19. Nxe5 Qb6 20. Rd2 Bf5 21. Qc3 Qb4 22. Re1 h5 23. Qxb4 cxb4 24. Nac4 Nxc4 25. Nxc4 Rfc8 26. Na5 Kf8 27. Nc6 Rb7 28. Rd4 b3 29. axb3 Rd7 30. Ne5 Rdc7 31. Rc4 Bc2 32. Rc1 Rxc4 33. bxc4 Be4 34. Nc6 Rc7 35. Ra1 Bd3 36. Bf1 Bxf1 37. Kxf1 Rb7 38. b4 Ne4 39. Ke2 Nd6 40. Kd3 Nc8 41. c5 Rc7 42. b5 Ke8 43. Kc4 Kd7 44. Ra3 Ke8 45. g4 hxg4 46. hxg4 Kf8 47. g5 Kg7 48. Rf3 Kg8 49. Rf4 Kg7 50. Kd4 Rb7 51. Rxf7+ Kg8 52. Kc4 a6 53. bxa6 Rb1 54. Rf4 Ra1 55. Kb5 Rb1+ 56. Rb4 Ra1 57. Ra4.