The top two chess players at the World Chess Championship have earned a place in round three that starts on Wednesday, but England’s Nigel Short was knocked out the night before in the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
Short, world number 15 and number five in the tournament, drew in Tuesday’s second round-two game with his Polish opponent Michal Krasenkow after 71 moves in an English defence opening that forced the Brit to bow out of the contest early.
The English grandmaster, who was once a world champion finalist against Garry Kasparov, lost his game on Monday with Krasenkow, seeded number 57 in the competition, due to a serious blunder that robbed him of a rook. He needed to win Tuesday’s game to have a chance at a tiebreaker with his weaker-ranked Polish opponent.
Short’s compatriot Michael Adams, number two in the tournament and number eight in the world, fared better in the day’s games, beating his Armenian opponent Karen Asrian with comeback determination. A draw between the two players in the first game of round two on Monday had upped the stakes for Tuesday’s match.
Asrian, the weaker player, initiated a Caro-Kann exchange defence that developed into a Panov-Botvinnik attack, but he could not stave away his opponent’s meticulous thrust and resigned after 46 moves.
Tournament favourite Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria continued to sail through the opening rounds without much suspense.
Elsewhere, the youngest player and only American left in the tournament, 16-year-old Hikaru Nakamura, proved that he had done his homework before coming to Tripoli. He made it to round three after beating his higher ranked opponent by 1,5 points to 0,5.
”Yesterday’s game, which I won, was more exciting because today was just a draw. Both of us were low on time and I managed to outplay him with a rook and a knight,” Nakamura said of the creative endgame from Monday’s first game of round one.
Of the 32 games played on Tuesday fifteen ended in draws and required rapid and blitz games to eliminate the stubborn hangers on.
Cuba’s Lenier Dominguez, one of eight players to reach the final sudden death round, displayed inspiring stamina to topple higher-rated Vladimir Malakhov of Russia in a battle that lasted until the early hours of Wednesday.
Short on time, Dominguez got a lucky draw in the second blitz game but came back with a strong attack in the sudden death round and cordoned off black’s king with two rooks and a queen on the ”f” file.
The World Chess Federation (Fide), began its Tripoli championship on Saturday despite Libya’s refusal to allow players from Israel and the absence of many top players.
Only two of Fide’s top 10 were participating, apparently because many players were angry that the world’s strongest rated player, Kasparov of Russia, was to be allowed to play the winner without having to go through qualifying rounds.
Libya, which is putting up the $1,5-million in prize money for the tournament, has been struggling to shake off its reputation as a rogue state that sponsors terrorism and foments trouble around the world. Welcoming the chess tournament and making a failed bid to host the 2010 soccer World Cup were seen as part of a campaign to clean up its international image. — Sapa-AP