Morelia (Mexico): World champion Viswanathan Anand scored an emphatic victory over Latvian-born Spaniard Alexei Shirov in the first round of the Morelia-Linares Chess Tournament here.

The victory, with black pieces, helped Anand take early joint lead in the category-21 event being played between eight players in double round-robin format.

Former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria defeated Levon Aronian of Armenia while Peter Leko of Hungary accounted for Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan to share the lead with Anand after the first round.

The other keenly contested game of the day, between Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, ended in a draw after a tough fight.

Playing the Sicilian Nazdorf, Anand faced the rauzer, a rage amongst attacking players these days, and went for the Gelfand variation that took Shirov by surprise.

The Spaniard went for something not much in fashion and was soon looking for counter play when Anand sacrificed an exchange and even though it appeared that Shirov had wild complexities to handle, Anand’s position remained preferable in the eyes of many experts.

As it happened in the game, Anand fired one salvo after another at Shirov’s king and the latter could not handle the immense pressure. The game lasted just 30 moves. (Pti)