By IANS,
Leon (Spain) : Current World Champion and No. 1 Viswanathan Anand will take on local star Francisco Vallejo Pons in the first of the two semi-finals Saturday in the Ciudad de Leon chess Tournament.
Seven times winner in Leon, Anand is the favourite for the title, which he has won on last three occasions from 2005 to 2007. His other wins here came in 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2001. He has won the title six times in the last nine editions.
The second semi-final will feature former World championship runner-up Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk, who is currently the World No. 2 in rankings.
The games will have live comments of Grandmasters Miguel Illescas and Michael Rahal who will provide entertaining and high quality technical comments.
This year the tournament will have still more excitement – it will be very fast, only 20 minutes plus 10 seconds after each move for all the game. A tie-break with blitz games of five minutes will be played in case of a tie.