Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in the second game of the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship at the main event of the Chess Classic in Mainz.
After the first game ended in a draw, Anand, the world rapid champion, missed out on some promising continuations in the middle game and in the end went down fighting against his younger opponent for whom this was a first victory over Anand in a rapid chess game.
Radjabov now leads 1.5-0.5 in this eight-game match.
The four-day main event also saw Chess960 world champion Peter Svidler struggling to defend his title as he lost both games of the opening day against World cup champion Levon Aronian of Armenia.
Chess960 is a variant of the game in which the position of the pieces are randomly shuffled before the start of the game.
Harikrishna on Friday became the junior champion in this variant of the game by defeating Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany 4.5-3.5 in the eight-game match.
For Anand, who is looking for his sixth straight title here, the first day turned out to be quite tough as Radjabov matched him in style despite being a couple of pawns less in the second game.
Earlier, the two played out a Semi-Slav defense wherein Radjabov, white, went for an in-vogue variation to complicate matters.
Anand apparently had things under control when he successfully traded of queen and emerged with two extra pawns. Even though his position remained a bit passive, it was widely felt that Anand would end up a winner.
However, as the events unfolded, Radjabov carried out his counterplay in a striking fashion and it was almost curtains for Anand once the Azerbaijani successfully penetrated the seventh rank with his rook.
Losing a piece to a dangerously poised pawn of white, Anand resigned on his 46th turn.
"I certainly had a very promising or even winning position. When I get to my room, I will check the game with the computer, which will probably show some promising lines", Anand said after the game.
Earlier in the first game of the match, Anand played the white side of a Sicilian Sveshnikov but could do little as Radjabov neutralised white's initiative with awesome ease in one of the positional variations.
Playing energetically on the queenside, Radjabov won one pawn but the closed structure helped Anand maintain the balance with some timely exchanges. The peace was signed after 34 moves.
In the Finet open being played according to Chess 960 rules, Harikrishna failed to keep the momentum ticking and scored just three points in the first five rounds. This event concludes late on Friday and thereafter Ordix open rapid tournament will be played.
Results:
V Anand v/s Teimour Radjabov -0.5-1.5
Peter Svidler v/s Levon Aronian 0-2
The moves: (V Anand v/s Teimour Radjabov)
Game 1: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 Bg5 12. Nc2 O-O 13. a4 bxa4 14. Rxa4 a5 15. Bc4 Bd7 16. O-O Ne7 17. Ra2 Rc8 18. Nxe7+ Qxe7 19. Bd5 Rc5 20. b3 Rxc3 21. Rxa5 Be6 22. Nb4 Rfc8 23. Ra1 Qd7 24. Qe2 Bxd5 25. Nxd5 Rxb3 26. Rab1 Rxb1 27. Rxb1 g6 28. g3 Kg7 29. Kg2 Bd8 30. Qd3 h5 31. h3 Qc6 32. Rb3 Qc4 33. Qf3 Qc6 34. Rc3 draw agreed
Game 2: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nf3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. g4 h6 8. Bd2 dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 Bb7 11. Rg1 Rc8 12. g5 hxg5 13. Rxg5 Kf8 14. Ne5 Qe7 15. Bf3 Bxe5 16. dxe5 Nd5 17. Rh5 Rxh5 18. Bxh5 Kg8 19. O-O-O Qh4 20. Be2 Qxf2 21. Rf1 Qg2 22. Qe4 Qxe4 23. Nxe4 Nxe5 24. Nc5 Ba8 25. Rd1 Nc4 26. Bxc4 bxc4 27. e4 Nf6 28. Bc3 Ng4 29. Rg1 Nf2 30. Rxg7+ Kf8 31. Bf6 Nd3+ 32. Nxd3 cxd3 33. Kd2 c5 34. Rh7 Ke8 35. Kxd3 Bb7 36. h4 Rc6 37. e5 Ra6 38. h5 Ra4 39. Rh8+ Kd7 40. h6 Be4+ 41. Ke3 Bf5 42. h7 Bxh7 43. Rxh7 Rxa2 44. Rxf7+ Kc6 45. Re7 Kd5 46. b3 black resigned
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