Anand set for sixth Corsica title

Five-time champion Viswanathan Anand is one step away from making it six in a row at the Corsica Masters rapid knockout chess tournament in Bastia, France.

Anand entered the final with a fluent win in the tie-breaker against Englishman Michael Adams. The tournament has a prize purse of 100,000 Euros.

In the Anand-Adams clash, the two games in the rapid format were drawn and they played the tie-breaker, which Anand won with both black and white.

Anand, who beat Mikhail Gurevich 2-0 in the quarter-finals will now face Swiss player, Vadim Milov.

In the first of the two tie-breaker games, Anand, black, beat Adams in 53 moves in Sicilian Defence. The second game saw Anand win in 55 minutes from a Ruy Lopez. In the earlier games, Anand and Adams drews once each in Ruy Lopez and Caro-Kann.

In the other semi-final, Milov and Hungary's Zoltan Almasi had one win each in the normal mini-match. In the first game of the tie-breaker, Milov managed a draw in 49 moves of French Defence, and in the second Milov beat Almasi in 48 moves. In the earlier games, Milov won the first game and then lost the second to Almasi.

The Corcisan Circuit 2005 consists of three tournaments. In the first tournament at Aiacciu on October 26-27, India's Krishnan Sasikiran won and then in the second in Venacu on October 28-29, Anand emerged the winner. Led by the winners and the other leading finishers, the field for the FIDE tournament, the Corsica Masters, was decided.

Some of the players in the tournament are Judit Polgar, Etienne Bacrot, Michael Adams, Viktor Bologan, Alexey Shirov, Sergei Tiviakov, Joel Lautier and Pavel Tregubov.

Sasikiran lost to Almasi in the quarter-finals 0.5-1.5 and bowed out of the main tournament.

The results:

Semi-finals: Game 2: Michael Adams (Eng) (1) drew with Viswanathan Anand (1); Zoltan Almasi (Hun) (1) bt Vadim Milov (Sui) (1); Game 1: Anand drew with Adams; Milov bt Almasi.  Tiebreak: Game 2: Anand (3) bt Adams (1); Milov (2.5) bt Almasi (1.5); Game 1: Adams (1) lost to Anand (2); Almasi (1.5) drew with Milov (1.5).

Quarter-finals: Game 2: Mikhail Gurevich (Tur) (0) lost to Anand (2); David Alberto (Lux) (1) lost to Almasi (1); Laurent Fressinet (Fra) (0) lost to Adams (2); Milov (1.5) bt Judit Polgar (Hun) (0.5); Game 1: Anand bt Gurvevich; Almasi lost to David; Adams bt Fressinet; Judit drew with Milov. Tiebreak: Game 1: David (1) lost to Almasi (2); Game 2: Almasi (2.5) drew with David (1.5).