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Anand gets back to winning ways

"Shirov doesn't have a single chess set in his house!"

This statement made its rounds a little while ago, in its incarnation as chess Urban Legend. Whether true or apocryphal, it doesn't seem to matter anymore.

Today's GMs rarely bother with wooden pieces, a heavy board, and the laborious process of setting up the pieces. They all have their computers, and are expected to be expert users. World champ Garry Kasparov moves around toting his trusted laptop. When it comes to computers, Vishwanathan Anand has been dubbed the "superwhiz."

This week, Anand, Shirov, Judith Polgar and Miguel Illescas got a chance to try out their chess and computer skills simultaneously, in the Advanced Chess Tournament was held in Leon, Spain from the 2nd to the 4th of June.

In this tournament, GMs are allowed the assistance of a computer that has a game database and plays chess. The players can use it to check out variations and to weed out any weak moves. They get an hour each of thinking time per game. The four GMs played in two semifinal matches to decide the finalists.

In the first semi, fellow Spaniards Alexi Shirov and Illescas battled it out. Arguably, Illescas is not the same league as the other supergrandmasters. However, he is intimately familiar with the format and this tournament, because he was the commentator for last year's Anand-Karpov match. But when thrown into the fray, Illescas didn't fare well. Shirov won both games handily, and coasted into the finals.

In the second semifinals, Anand met Judith Polgar who is coming here after recent victories in Sweden and the Jafpa tournament in Bali, Indonesia. Anand and Polgar drew both the regular time games, as well as the first rapid game. In the fourth game, Anand managed to get an unbeatable position and Judith resigned.

And this led the way for the much-hoped for Anand-Shirov match-up in the finals.

Vishwanathan Anand was last year's winner in Leon, winning against Anatoly Karpov with a score of 5-1 and making the act seem easier than swiping candy from a baby.

The year 2000 hasn't been a very good one for Anand thus far. There was to have been an Ultimate World Chess Championship match between him and Garry Kasparov, but the deal was not consummated. Kramnik is now the new challenger to Garry.

In the finals, Anand made a great knight sacrifice with white to clinch the first game. Anand managed to keep the second game fully under control, and unable to make headway in a queens-and-pawns ending, Shirov was forced to agree to a draw. Thus Anand retains his title as the advanced chess champ.

Shirov may not own a chess set at home, but when it comes to using computers, Anand showed that he is still the "superwhiz."