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Barua kicks off with an upset

Playing in his third World Chess Championships, Dibyendu Barua made a winning start in style on Saturday evening, stunning Alexander Khalifman, a three-times Russian champion, and seeded way above him -- 36th as compared to the 72nd ranking for the Indian.

Barua, rated 68 ELO points below Khalifman, was playing with white. Even as the Indian fans get ready to rejoice, Barua has to play the second game of this mini-match with black pieces and that comes on Sunday afternoon in the Casino City. Khalifman not an easy opponent to beat, as Vishwanathan Anand discovered three years ago -- the World No. 2, who has opted out of this World Championships, was taken into the tie-breaker by the Russian -- could well launch an attack with white to salvage parity and then wait for the tie-breaker on Monday afternoon.

In one of the longer games of the day, which saw three walkovers -- including one over non-granting of a visa to an Iranian player and another because a player was unable to make it to Las Vegas in time from another tournament in Biel, Switzerland, Barua played extremely well against a much more fancied opponent.

The end came after 60 moves, by which time most other contestants had finished their games and left the premises.

Barua had his two rooks in a strong combination on “b” and “c” files and was poised to deliver the final blow when his opponent conceeded the game.

The first day's play saw another major upset, as Pavel Kotsur defeated Sergey Dolmatov with black pieces in just 31 moves of a Sicilian Defence. Other upsets included Andres Rodriguez over Karen Asrian, once again with black pieces and a Sicilian. Daniel Fridman shocked Filipino Utut Adianto, Lev Aronian beat Rozentalis, Tal Shaked scored over Babula, Ralf Akesson stunned Tony Miles.

There were three walkovers. Two were expected as Vadim Milov, playing for the title in Biel, was unable to make it in time while Amir Bagheri of Iran was refused a visa and therefore failed to make it to the table. The third no-show was Hakki. The beneficiaries of these absentations were Bartlomiej Macieja against Milov; Rafael Leitao against Bagheri; and Hichem Hamdouchi against Imad Hakki.

Meanwhile, the upset win comes as sweet revenge for Barua, who had lost to Khalifman in the FIDE world championships edition of 1993. Khalifman was twice Russian champion in the last four years -- in 1995 and 1996 -- and therefore ranks as a formidable opponent for Barua, whose three main international wins have been Asian events in Dhaka and Isfehan (Iran) and a joint first effort in Ubeda last year.

Meanwhile at the players’ meeting on the eve of the tournament, there was further change in the pairings. Rumours of whether or not Karpov will be there were finally scotched.

The withdrawal of GM Anatoly Karpov, GM Alexander Morozevich, GM Susan Polgar and GM Draguljob Velimirovic led to formal acceptance of GM Vadim Milov (for Karpov), GM Alexey Dreev (for Morozevich), GM Joel Lautier (for Velimirovic) and GM Ulf Andersson (for Polgar). But since Karpov and Morozevich were seeded into the second round, initially their replacements Milov and Dreev were put into round 2. But a vehement protest from Michael Krasenkow of Poland and Fedorov of Russia -- who were to start from round 1, led to another situation. These two players, higher rated than the two replacements, made their displeasure known and Sergey Tiviakov also protested. Then at a Presidential Board meeting before the players meeting, Krasenkow and Fedorov were sent into second round, and Milov and Dreev were pulled back to first round. Fortunately all players accepted the new pairings.

Meanwhile, at the official opening ceremonies there were messages from US President Bill Clinton and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Juan Antonio Samaranch, both of whom are said to be chess fans, too. Chess, since it has now been elevated to being a recognised sport by IOC could well be making an Olympic entry in coming future. That may not be in the same form as the world championships format, but a more abbreviated form based on restricted number of entries and seedings. That should mean good news for India with Anand in its ranks.

The next world championships are likely to be held in Hongkong in the last two months of 2000.

Dibyendu Barua, India (2550) vs A Khalifman, Russia (2628), Sicilian Defence

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nf3 h6 8. O-O Be7 9. Re1 O-O 10. h3 Be6 11. Bf1 Nb8 12. a4 Nbd7 13. a5 a6 14. Nd5 Nxd5 15. exd5 Bf5 16. c4 Bg6 17. Nd2 Bf6 18. Ra3 Re8 19. Ne4 Bxe4 20. Rxe4 Bg5 21. Bxg5 hxg5 22. Rg4 f5 23. Rgg3 g6 24. Qd2 f4 25. Rgb3 Rb8 26. Be2 Kg7 27. Bg4 Re7 28. Bxd7 Rxd7 29. Rb6 Rc8 30. Qd3 Qf6 31. Rab3 Qf7 32. Rc3 Qf5 33. Qd1 Qe4 34. Qg4 Qf5 35. Qd1 Qe4 36. b3 Rcc7 37. f3 Qf5 38. Qe1 Kh6 39. Qe4 Qxe4 40. fxe4 g4 41. hxg4 Kg5 42. Kf2 Kxg4 43. c5 g5 44. c6 Rh7 45. b4 Rcf7 46. Rf3 Rc7 47. Rb3 bxc6 48. dxc6 Rh1 49. Rc3 Rb1 50. Rc2 Rb3 51. b5 axb5 52. Rb7 Rc8 53. c7 f3 54. gxf3+ Rxf3+ 55. Ke2 Rh3 56. a6 b4 57. Rb8 Rh2+ 58. Kf1 Rh1+ 59. Kg2 b3 60. Rc3 1-0

Results of the first game, round one

Chiburdanidze, Maya - Akopian, Vladimir 0-1
Sokolov, Ivan - Kudrin, Sergey 1-0
Ivanov, Alexander - Milos, Gilberto 0-1
Adianto, Utut - Fridman, Daniel 0-1
Hakki, Imad - Hamdouchi, Hichem 0-1 (W/O)
Wahls, Matthias - Cela, Altin 1-0
Zubarev, Alexander1 - Stefansson, Hannes ˝
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter - Djuric, Stefan 1-0
Leitao, Rafael - Bagheri, Amir 1-0 (W/O)
Barua, Dibyendu - Khalifman, Alexander 1-0
Asrian, Karen - Rodriguez, Andres 0-1
Ricardi, Pablo - Speelman, Jonathan S ˝
Lautier, Joel - Kobese, Watu 1-0
Akesson, Ralf - Miles, Anthony J 1-0
Andersson, Ulf - Mohamed, Esam Ahmed Nagib 1-0
Nielsen, Peter Heine - Benjamin, Joel ˝
Tkachiev, Vladislav - Hoffman, Alejandro 1-0
Feldman, Vladimir - Magem Badals, Jordi 0-1
Antonio, Rogelio jr - Kozak, Alexander 1-0
Ehlvest, Jaan - Nijboer, Friso 1-0
Shaked, Tal - Babula, Vlastimil 1-0
Aleksandrov, Aleksej - Becerra Rivero, Julio 1-0
Liang Chong - Dizdar, Goran ˝
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam - Bauer, Christian ˝
Aronian, Levon - Rozentalis, Eduardas 1-0
Gulko, Boris F - Reinderman, Dimitri 1-0
Bouaziz, Slim - Kotronias, Vasilios 0-1
Dreev, Alexey - Zelcic, Robert ˝
Spraggett, Kevin - Yermolinsky, Alex ˝
Peng Xiaomin - Sadvakasov, Darmen 1-0
Kobalija, Mihail - DeFirmian, Nick E ˝
Psakhis, Lev - Zapata, Alonso ˝
Al-Modiahki, Mohamad - Ponomariov, Ruslan ˝
Dolmatov, Sergey - Kotsur, Pavel 0-1
Gurevich, Dmitry - Tiviakov, Sergei ˝
Macieja, Bartlomiej - Milov, Vadim 1-0 (W/O)(walkover)

PS: Next game on Sunday local Las Vegas times 3 pm