By IANS
Morelia (Mexico) : Viswanathan Anand opened his defence of the Morelia Linares chess tournament in style crushing Alexei Shirov with black pieces unleashing a theoretical novelty in the first round of the eight-man tournament Friday.
The World Champion, who won this tournament to move into World No. 1 position, took 30 moves for his superb win, which was one of three in the four games of the opening round.
In other games, Peter Leko beat young Teimour Radjabov while Veselin Topalov beat Lev Iranian, whom Anand had said was the favourite for the event. In the fourth games, Magnus Carlsen drew with Vassily Ivanchuk in 39 moves.
Anand played a theoretical novelty as early as move 13, with an exchange sacrifice on c3. The Sacrifice initially looked a little suspect but with Shirov’s attack not materialising, Anand was soon in a winning position with a strong attack against the white king.
Shirov may have missed a chance to neutralise or at least find play on the 22nd move, but within a matter of few more moves, Anand had swung into a position of mating Shirov’s king in a handful of moves. Shirov, who has often been at the receiving end of Anand’s fine play, resigned on the 30th move.
Carlsen, seen as one of the finest young talents on the scene was unable to break through Ivanchuk, even though he had a slight advantage.
Leko won a fine game in Sveshnikov against Radjabov. The Hungarian, Leko, used his chances well.
Topalov outplayed Aronian in the opening itself with what looked like a well-prepared home analysis. Aronian also had time problems as he used one hour 17 minutes for 19 moves, while Topalov used just 35 minutes. Black (Aronian) tried hard but it was futile.
Moves of Shirov-Anand game:
Round 1, Morelia-Linares GM tournament
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Nbd7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9. O-O-O b5 10. Bd3 Bb7 11. Rhe1 Qb6 12. Nb3 Rc8 13. Qh3 Rxc3 14.bxc3 Qc7 15. Kb1 Be7 16. e5 dxe5 17. f5 Nd5 18. Bxe7 Kxe7 19. fxe6 fxe6 20.Qg3 g6 21. Rd2 Rc8 22. Qg5+ Ke8 23. Qg4 Nxc3+ 24. Ka1 Bd5 25. Re3 Nf6 26.Qh4 Qe7 27. Bf1 Bxb3 28. cxb3 Nce4 29. Rb2 Rc1+ 30. Rb1 Qc5 0-1.
Results of Round 1: Shirov lost to Anand; Carlesen drew with Ivanchuk; Leko beat Radjabov; Topalov beat Aronian
Pairings for Round 2: Anand v Aronian; Radjabov v Topalov; Ivanchuk v Leko; Shirov v Carlsen