Viswanathan Anand

Bastia: World champion Viswanathan Anand took an early lead, winning the first game of the rapid match against former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia here.

Anand played safe and got an easy draw with black pieces in the second game to lead the four-game match at 1.5-0.5.

The remaining two games of the match will be played at Ajaccio Monday.

In choosing his opening move Anand took the cue from Garri Kasparov. The Russian stalwart had used a typical system in the Queen pawn opening to win a recent rapid-blitz match against Karpov and Anand used a similar plan to come up trumps.

It was a Queen’s gambit declined wherein Karpov got close to obtaining an equal position but Anand was in a commanding position with his better-placed pieces.

The middle game saw the Bishops going off the board along with a set of rooks but Anand’s grip on the position remained intact with some finely crafted manoeuvres leading to the win of a pawn.

Meticulous play thereafter ensured Anand’s advantage increased and, after forcing the exchange of queens, it was curtains for Karpov. The game lasted 46 moves.

In the second game, Karpov could not get an advantage in a Semi Slav defence variation by Anand and the exchange of pieces at regular intervals saw the Indian equalising comfortably with the slightly less favourable colour — black. The transitions from the opening to the middle game and then to the endgame had one thing in common; Anand’s defence was impregnable.

The players eventually arrived at a queen and pawns endgame and signed peace in 42 moves via perpetual checks.

This is Anand’s first appearance in competitive chess since losing the Mainz Classic title in August.

In the German city, Anand had bowed out of contention for a top place in the Grenkeleasing World Rapid Chess championship after being eliminated in the preliminary round.

Anand found he would exceptional results with some luck to make it to the finals after having lost two of his first three games and, even though he tried hard, lady luck did not smile on him.

An 11-time winner in Mainz, Anand scored 2.5 points in all after drawing all the three games in the return games of the prelims and finished third.

“I think… people who deserved to qualify, qualified. That’s life. If you play badly you get punished,” Anand had said after the disappointing outing.

Anand has taken a deserving lead and has been the one looking to punish. He’d certainly be itching to return to doing what he does best.

After this Anand will take part in the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow, the world blitz championship and the Corus chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee in January 2010.