Anand demolishing field in Sao Paulo

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8/23/2004 – Yawn. Another week, another win for Viswanathan Anand. The Indian star has it on cruise control in Brazil at the Desafio de Xadrez. For Anand that means winning three in a row including a victory over Karpov. At least the race for second place is interesting! Games and report.

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Desafio de Xadrez – Sao Paulo, Brazil – Aug 20-24 • Official site
Standings after round eight • View all games online

As he so often does, Vishy Anand is making it look easy. There is a tight horserace in this rapid tournament, but there is a tiger loose among the horses. Anand leads by two full points with two rounds to play while only a point and a half separates the other five players.

While ruining the suspense of the event (was there really any suspense?), Anand has played crushing chess. He has won all four of his whites and tossed in a black win over Vescovi for good measure. Anand also nailed his old foe Karpov just for fun. What is it about the Indian that makes his opponents play misguided Sicilians against him lately? Kramnik rolled out the Najdorf against him in Dortmund and was duly crushed. Karpov never plays the Sicilian, but trotted it out against Vishy yesterday with predictable results.

With two rounds to go the race for second is still hot. The race for first is as one-sided as Kasparov's 20-board simul on Saturday. He made a clean score against a group of talented Brazilian juniors rated 1900-2200 plus a bunch of amateurs who were there for the photo op, not a chance at a half point. A pity the world's #1 rated player couldn't have joined the world's #1 playing player in the rapid tournament to make it more interesting!

Vescovi-Anand after 35...Qd1+

Vescovi has a choice. He can take the knight and enter a losing endgame after 36.Kxe4 Qd5+ 37.Kf4 Qxg2. Or he can head for the bar for a nice caipirinha with 36.Kf4 g5+ 37.Kf5 Qd7+ 38.Kg6 Qe6+ 0-1 It's mate after 39.Qf6+ Qxf6+ 40.Kh5 Bf7+ 41.Kg4 h5# He decided for the bar.