2/2/2011 – Reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand played two games against former World Champion Anatoly Karpov on Tuesday. Then the two took on eleven players each in simultaneous matches. The unusual part was the venue: it was on a high-speed Spanish train en route from Madrid to Valencia. Our report includes a 45-minute video interview with Anatoly Karpov.
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These trains, which run at speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph) on dedicated
tracks, are called AVE, which stands for Alta Velocidad Española. The
name is literally translated from Spanish as "High Speed Spanish",
but also a play on the word ave, meaning "bird". Marginally
cleverer than the French version, which was christened "Train with the
Great Speed" ("Train à Grande Vitesse"). How unimaginative
can you get?
The first game was played in the arrival hall of Madrid's Puerta de Atocha
station.
The two then boarded the AVE and travelled to Valencia, playing a simultaneous
exhibition against nine opponents on the train
At the Joaquin Sorolla station in Valencia each picked a player from the simul
for a game they played against each other. The two amateurs, César Estrada
and Emilio Cuevas, were allowed to ask their mentors for advice during the game.Then
Anand and Karpov played a second game, which also ended in a draw. Anand said
that the 95-minute journey from Madrid to Valencia was perfect for a game of
chess.
The games
At first, after seeing the score of two draws between Anand, at the top of
his game, and Karpov, in frank decadence (in chess) for some time now, the initial
reaction was that the reigning world champion had played a couple of diplomatic
draws against his predecessor. However, the games show that this was not the
case at all, and that the 12th world champion was having a good day, as his
game play was precise and unerring.
In the first game, Anand was white and played an Open Catalan. Karpov had
no trouble equalizing after which he never lost control of the position.
The second game was actually very much in Anatoly’s favor. Anand innovated
with a slightly dubious opening novelty in a Queen’s Indian and Karpov
seemed to have all the moves to illustrate just why it was no good. He created
enormous pressure and his advantage seemed almost winning as he penetrated into
Anand’s position with his pieces. Eventually he was unable to build upon
this, and they drew after 41 moves, but there is no question as to who was trying
to save the game.
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