Viswanathan Anand lived up to his style of playing aggressive and dangerously attacking chess to score a full point over the first day's star, Vladimir Akopian of Armenia, in the second round of the 66th Corus Grandmasters Chess tournament at the De Moriaan Hall at the seaside resort of Wijk Aan Zee, in the Netherlands.
The exciting game also earned the NIIT Brand Ambassador his first Spectator's Award for the Best Game of the Day in the ongoing tournament.
Anand played riskily by grabbing a pawn and then kept pressing to be finally rewarded with a full point after 45 moves from the game which was a Sicilian Scheveningen.
The NIIT mind champion, wearing a big smile and his sponsor's jersey with their name emblazoned on it, said, "I enjoyed playing the game. It was very interesting and complex at times. I turned down his offer of a draw despite the position being more or less equal. But he was short on time."
"It is a decent start going into the first rest day," added the defending champion.
There were two other decisive games on the second day, as Vladimir Kramnik beat Loek Van Wely and Peter Leko beat Jan Timman.
At the end of two rounds, Anand shares the lead with Peter Leko at 1.5 points each, while ten players have one point each. Interestingly all players have opened their accounts with Loek Van Wely and Jan Timman being at the bottom with half a point each.
On a day when the Sicilian seemed to be the order of the day with four of the seven games going into it, Vladimir Kramnik rebounded from his first round defeat at the hands of Akopian with a win over local man Loek Van Wely in a Sicilian Modern Dragon. Michael Adams and Alexey Shirov played a 58 move draw in a Sicilian Rossolimo, the same as one between Chinese newcomer Zhang Zhong and Russan champion Peter Svidler, which also lasted many moves.
Peter Leko dealt another local man, veteran Jan Timman, a defeat in 60 moves in a English Symmetrical opening while Veselin Topalov drew with another Dutchman Ivan Sokolov in 35 moves of a Slav defence. Evgeny Bareev drew with Viorel Bologan in the shortest game of the day, a 23-move draw in Nomzo Indian.
Armenian looking confident after his great win over Kramnik on first day once again played aggressively in the Sicilian. And Anand thrives in an aggressive game in the Sicilian. It was a very sharp and double-edged game. Anand castled on the queen side and then decided to take the pawn Akopian offered. The Indian star then weathered the attack on his queen following his capture of the pawn. Keeping the pawn seemed dangerous and Akopian also unsure offered a draw, but Anand turned it down. He began building a kingside attack and with Akopian getting into problems with the clock, the Indian pressed ahead.
With the position looking highly complex and unclear to all sides - the two players and the spectators - Anand kept his nerve and managed to get a win as Akopian resigned after 45 moves.
Monday evening will be the first rest day of the tournament and on Tuesday NIIT-sponsored Anand meets Loek Van Wely with black pieces.
Results (second round): Adams (Eng; 2720) drew Shirov (Esp; 2736); Zhong (Chn; 2644) drew Svidler (Rus 2747); Bareev (Rus 2714) drew Bologan (Mld, 2679); Kramnik (Rus, 2777) beat Van Wely (Ned, 2617); Anand (Ind, 2766) beat Akopian (Arm, 2693); Timman (Ned, 2578) lost to Leko (Hun, 2722); Topalov (Bul, 2735) drew Sokolov (Ned, 2706).
Pairings for third round: Sokolov v Adams; Leko v Topalov; Akopian v Timman; Van Wely v Anand; Bologan v Kramnik; Svidler v Bareev; Shirov v Zhong.
Standings: (after 2 rounds): 1. Anand and Leko 1.5 each; 3. Akopian, Adams, Bologan, Shirov, Svidler Topalov, Zhong, Bareev, Sokolov and Kramnik 1.0 each; 13. Van Wely and Timman 0.5 each.
The moves:
Anand v Akopian
Wijk Aan Zee, Round 2
Siclian Scheveningen
1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Nc6 7. f3 e6 8.g4 Be7 9. Qd2 O-O 10. O-O-O Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5 12. g5 Nd7 13. h4 Qc7 14. Kb1 b4 15. Na4 Bb7 16. Qxb4 Bc6 17. Nc3 Rfb8 18. Qc4 Ne5 19. Qe2 Qa5 20. f4 Ng6 21. Qf3 e5 22. Bf2 Qb4 23. b3 Nxf4 24. Be1 Qc5 25. Bg3 a5 26. Bxf4 exf4 27. Nd5 Bd8 28. Qxf4 a4 29. Rh2 Bxd5 30. exd5 Ba5 31. Qd4 Qa3 32. h5 Bb6 33. Qc3 Ba5 34. Qd4 Bb6 35. Qd3 Re8 36. g6 fxg6 37. hxg6 h6 38. Bh3 Bd8 39. Be6+ Rxe6 40. dxe6 Bf6 41. c3 axb3 42. Qc4 Qa5 43. e7+ Kh8 44. Re1 Be5 45. Qc6 1-0
