Anand trounces Shirov in second game, takes lead

MAINZ, Germany, Aug 6 (UNI): World Rapid Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand amended his mediocre show in the first game by registering a comprehensive victory in the second against Spaniard Alexie Shirov in the Duel of the World Champions here.

Playing with white in the second game, Anand dominated the proceeding right from the beginning and did not give any opportunity to Shirov to come even near a draw.

In the first game, the Indian had survived a tough position in the match played under French defence format.

Shirov, who had lost to Anand in the World championship finals in 2001 at Tehran, could not force a win with his white pieces and in the end, opted for draw after 41 moves.

In the middle game, Shirov missed some chances and Anand forced the draw by exchanges.

Speaking to UNI immediately after the second game, Anand said, "In the first game, I was initially in better position but then it got worse.

I could have lost but eventually l was able to save the game.

It was a tough fight.

However, in the second, Shirov never got into the game." Earlier in the day, K Sasikiran came out victorious against his lower rated opponents in the first four games but lost the fifth against Mihail Kobalija on the first day of the two day Chess960 FiNet Open 2004.

This event attracted as many as 74 Grandmasters from all over the world.

With four wins and a loss, Sasikiran is now with four points out of a possible five.

Meanwhile, former World Chess Champion GM Ruslan Ponomariov got a shock when he surrendered to a much lower rated player David Baramidze in the second round of the championship.

He later recovered and won the remaining rounds to score four out of five points.

Top Seed Alexander Morozevich also lost his third game and with one draw, slipped to the 41st place.

The wonder kid of the chess world, Sergei Karjakin, who holds the record of becoming the youngest Grandmaster gave a commendable performance by scoring four points in his five games.

Women's World Chess Champion Antoaneta Stefanova gave an average performace and could muster 3.5 points in as many games.

Standing after 5 Games: 1.Arthur Jusspow; 2.Etiennie Barcot ; 3.Mikhail Kobalija ; 4.Luke MacShane; 5.Vadim Zvaginsev; 6.Zoltan Almasi ; 7.Krishnan Sasikiran 8.Peter Heine Nielsen; 9 Sergei Karjkin ; 10.