By IANS
Wijk Aan Zee, (Netherlands) : World champion Viswanathan Anand has got off to a nightmarish start with a loss to young Teimour Radjabov in the opening round of the 70th Corus Grandmasters tournament here.
The Indian, who has won five times at Wijk Aan Zee, went down in a marathon 87-move game Saturday, where he had black pieces.
The tournament itself got off to an explosive start with Magnus Carlsen of Sweden scoring a shock win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Lev Aronian stunning Veselin Topalov.
In the other groups, India had mixed results. Pentala Harikrishna drew his first round in Group B with Englishman Nigel Short, a former trainer of his; while Koneru Humpy, with black pieces went down to lower rated Jan Smeets of Netherlands.
In Group C, Pontus Carlsson of Sweden beat teenager Parimarjan Negi, playing with white.
The Radjabov-Anand game was an ultra-sharp Semi-Slav. Anand was in trouble straight from the opening. For a long time, he seemed to be holding out with a chance to split the point as Radjabov was in time pressure, even while being better off on board.
At move 40, Anand did not mind giving in the exchange in the hope of drawing chances. The young Azerbaijani took the exchange, but in the presence of rooks, it was tough to convert that. However Radjabov, who was a joint-winner here, last year, grounded down Anand and took the full point with a great fight in 87 moves.
It was a big setback for Anand, who held a 9-4 head-to-head win-loss record against Radjabov. He will have to recover quickly as he plays Mamedyarov, the world No.4 in second round.
In the other matches, Levon Aronian defeated Veselin Topalov in a dynamic struggle, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seemed to be doing fine against Magnus Carlsen until around move 30 and he ended up losing to the young Swede.
The other four matches were drawn. Michael Adams came up against Boris Gelfand’s Petroff Defence and draw was agreed on move 21, while Peter Leko innovated against Pavel Eljanov and a position of equality was reached on move 27.
Vassily Ivanchuk achieved nothing against Judit Polgar’s Queen’s Indian and the position was halved on move 24 and Vladimir Kramnik who doesn’t like to start a tournament in a too aggressive way drew with Loek van Wely.
Results: Group A: Round 1 Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) drew with Loek van Wely (Neth); Teimour Radjabov (Aze) beat V. Anand (Ind ); S. Mamedyarov (Aze) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Swe); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr) drew with Peter Leko (Hun); Michael Adams (Eng) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr) ; Levon Aronian ((Arm) beat Veselin Topalov (Bul); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Judit Polgar (Hun).
Pairings for Round 2: van Wely v Polgar; Topalov v Ivanchuk; Gelfand v Aronian; Leko v Adams; Carlsen v Eljanov; Anand v Mamedyarov; Kramnik v Radjabov