ANAND DRAWS WITH GIRI IN TAL MEMORIAL

Moscow: Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw as black against Anish Giri of Holland in the first round of the 10th edition of Tal Memorial Chess tournament here on Tuesday. Playing with the slightly less favourable colour in the game, Anand chose the Queen’s gambit declined, an opening that worked as a trusted aid a few times before in important clashes. Giri held a miniscule advantage that could have been neutralised by Anand easily. However, the Indian ace erred a little and missed out on an intermezzo that gave Giri a chance to play on for a long time. Anand had to find accurate counter- play to keep white pieces in check and he achieved the draw in 56 moves. Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia was the lone winner in the first round of the super tournament with a total prize of $ 200,000. Nepomniachtchi defeated compatriot Evgeny Tomashevsky in a beautiful miniature lasting a mere 23 moves out of a Scotch opening to take one point with eight rounds still to go. Earlier in the day, players paid homage to Mark Dvoretsky — the legendry Russian trainer who breathed his last on Sunday. The best game of the day was another all- Russian duel between Peter Svidler and Vladimir Kramnik. Svidler, who beat Kramnik in the blitz tournament earlier, nearly made it 2- 0 in as many days against the second highest rated player in the world.