Tiebreaks
beckon
A running report by Jonathan Tisdall - for the
live version see our Chess Message Boards.
Round Five, Day Two
Anand and Khalifman draw quickly, and are
headed for a tiebreak. Does that favor the faster
Anand, or does the slight randomization of
games played at a faster control just naturally
act as a leveller in terms of chances?
A quick draw from the youngsters Tkachiev and Grischuk
was a disappointment - the game was getting
interesting, and they should have more energy than
the older vets? Now we shall see if quickplay specialist
Tkachiev lives up to his reputation in the playoffs.
The leaders
Shirov makes his intentions of evening things up
via violence quite clear and launches an assault
in the general direction of Bareev's king. It is
far from clear that this is actually dangerous,
but a miscue from Bareev and suddenly the
ex-Latvian is all over him.
Instead of winning material Shirov just redoubles
the number of threats and a few moves later wins
the material with interest, while keeping the threats
up. Bareev just wants to go home. Tiebreaks for
this match as well.
Adams shows how one protects a lead with black.
His sturdy Petroff makes an appearance, and the
game is a hopeless race with Topalov trying
to create a threat before Adams vacuums the board
clean.
The Bulgarian accepts his fate on a rather
empty, danger-free board and Adams is the first
semifinalist.
Chinese final?
In the women's semifinal matches, what is left of
the world made a determined attempt to thwart
an all-China final.
Alisa Maric, needing a win, trussed up favorite
Qin Kanying and began methodically collecting pawns.
But the Chinese woman found a way to lose/sacrifice
a total of four(!) pawns to create counterplay.
Just before the time control Qin pulled off a successful
swindle and secured the draw she needed.
Reigning champion Xie Jun made no impression
on Kovalevskaya and will have to try to join her
compatriot via the tiebreaks.
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