Anand shows no mercy to trainer
Hari Hara Nandanan, TNN
Mar 30, 2011, 01.54am IST

CHENNAI: It was billed as a friendly match. Reigning world chess champion Viswanathan Anand and former world champ Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan played a four-game rapid match in Tashkent over the last weekend and at the end of it, the scoreline didn’t show any sign of friendship between them. The Indian almost blanked his trusted trainer (against Vladimir Kramnik) by a whopping 3.5-0.5 margin.

Anand’s match against the 2004 world champion was organized by the ministry for culture and sports of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Chess Federation, and ‘Forum of Culture and Arts of Uzbekistan’ to popularize the game in the country. “Today’s friendly has brought together two outstanding world champions – Rustam Kasymjanov and Viswanathan Anand,” World Chess Federation president Kisran Ilyumzhinov said at the beginning of the match.

The first game was drawn in 34 moves of Petroff Defence but after that the Indian ace showed his tactical skills, woefully missing in his rapid games in the Amber tournament where he finished third.

Full article here.

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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