In game one Judit Polgar, playing the white side of a sharp Sicilian, had Vishy Anand on the defensive from the start. The Indian rapid chess specialist fought back well, and for a while it looked as though he was going to take the point. But the young lady's super-aggressive style kept the pressure on, and soon Anand found himself struggling with an overloaded queen. In the end it was the powerful passed d-pawn the decided the game in favour of the Hungarian.
In the second game the "Tiger from Madras", as he is dubbed by the organisers, bounced back with a clinical victory over Polgar's Petroff Defence. Judit held on to a fluid position but missed the typical Anand intermezzo 25.Ng6. After this move, which won the exchange, White had a clear advantage, and Anand went on to convert a winning endgame in the effortless style of a world-class GM.
In their Chess960 match Peter Svidler (Russia) and Peter Leko (Hungary) started their first day with two draws. After the games the St Petersburger GM said: ”We could not entertain the people that much today, but there were some funny moments in the first game, because we were not sure how to castle in a certain position. We asked the arbiter after the game and he showed us how to do it. But I promise you: we will learn!” Peter Leko: “I think that the first game was a high-level game, every move made sense. Nevertheless, the second game was more interesting. I was thinking about 1.c4 to attack the pawn on h7, but after a minute I decided to play 1.e4 . Peter replied 1…c5 and suddenly we played a Sicilian! I had a better position but there was not enough time on the clock left to find the right plan to win the game.”
The games can be found on the official web site. Click "The Finale: Chess960" in the left navigation. On the report page the games are on the right in CBV or PGN format. Note that due to the unusual castling rules in Chess960 the games have to be split into two or three parts, because all current chess programs would consider the castlings illegal.
You can watch the games live on our Playchess.com server
