Chess

In the second round of the Dos hermanas tournament in Spain, Viswanathan Anand won an elegant game against Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov beat Nigel Short. The other three games were drawn, leaving Anand and Topalov sharing the lead with Boris Gelfand, all on 11/2 points. Karpov, Polgar, Illescas, Kramnik and Salov are half a point behind, all having drawn both their opening games.

Short's defeat came after he fell into a curious trap right out of the opening. Playing White, he met Topalov's Sicilian Defence in an old-fashioned style: 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.f4 Nc6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb5 Nge7 6.Ne5 Bd7 7.Nxd7 Qxd7 8.exd5 exd5 9.0-0 but after 9...0-0-0! 10.a3 Nf5 11.Be2 c4! 12.Bf3 Bc5+ 13.Kh1, Black launched a sudden attack with 13...h5! 14.Bxd5 h4!

The threat is 15...Ng3+ 16.hxg3 hxg3+ and White had nothing better than to give up the exchange with 15.h3 Ng3+ 16.Kh2 Nxf1+ 17.Qxf1 After 17...Rhe8 18.Bxc4 Qd4 19.d3 Qf2 20.Qxf2 bxf2, White had nominal material equality, but in the rest of the game, Black's rook always looked better than the white knight and two pawns. Topalov won in 65 moves.

It was Anand's win, however, that was the best of the round. Playing a standard type of pawn sacrifice in the opening, he continued by tripling major pieces on the b-file rather than pushing his central pawns. It worked beautifully and when he regained the pawn with 26.Rxb7 his active rooks gave him a clear advantage.

Black's attempt at counterplay with 27...g5 rebounded horribly against the excellent 28.g4! The final attack, introduced by 30.Kh2! and 31.Qh1! is splendid.

White: Viswanathan Anand

Black: Alexei Shirov

1 Nf3 d5 19 Bxd5+ cxd5

2 d4 c6 20 Rb1 Rd8

3 c4 Nf6 21 Qa2 Rc8

4 Nc3 a6 22 R6b5 Bf6

5 Bg5 Ne4 23 h4 Kf7

6 Bf4 Nxc3 24 R1b2 Rc6

7 bxc3 dxc4 25 Bb8 Raa6

8 g3 g6 26 Rxb7 Qe6

9 Bg2 Bg7 27 Qb1 g5

10 Ne5 Be6 28 g4 gxh4

11 Qb1 Qc8 29 gxf5 Qc8

12 a4 a5 30 Kh2 Qg8

13 0-0 0-0 31 Qh1 Qd8

14 Ra2 Nd7 32 Bf4 Rcb6

15 Nxd7 Qxd7 33 Rb8 Rxb8

16 Rb2 Ra7 34 Rxb8 Qd7

17 Rb6 f5 35 Qg2 resigns

18 Qb2 Bd5