Chess

World champion Vishy Anand of India won the prestigious Morelia-Linares tournament in Spain on Friday, scoring 8 1/2 points in 14 games. The rest finished as follows: Norway's Magnus Carlsen, 8 points; Armenia's Levon Aronian and Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov, 7 1/2 points; Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, 7 points; Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk, 6 1/2 points; Hungary's Peter Leko and Alexei Shirov of Spain, 5 1/2 points. After winning in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, in January, Carlsen had another great result and should move to sixth place in the world on the next FIDE rating list.

Avoiding a Roller Coaster

"I won because I was the most stable player," Anand said of his victory. The others had ups and downs, were more tired and blundered more often. Anand was well prepared for the event -- three of his wins came with the black pieces. His positional exchange sacrifice against Shirov in the Najdorf Sicilian made a great impression. It is theoretically important.

Shirov-Anand

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Nbd7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.0-0-0 b5 10.Bd3 Bb7 11.Rhe1 Qb6 (Lev Polugaevsky's star move from 1973 is still holding up.) 12.Nb3 (The knight sacrifice 12.Nd5 is more in Shirov's style.) 12...Rc8! (Anand prepares an exchange sacrifice on c3, shattering white's queenside. Shirov was ready for 12...b4, having faced it in his game against Sergei Karjakin in last year's World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It continued: 13.Nb1 Be7 14.N1d2 Qc7 15.Qh3 e5 16.Nc4 0-0 17.Nba5 with white's edge.) 13.Qh3 (The queen leaves the long diagonal a8-h1 and white is ready for a pawn strike in the center.)

13...Rxc3! (Garry Kasparov once accused Sergei Movsesian of lacking in chess culture because he allowed a similar exchange sacrifice against him. The light piece can be more effective than the rook in the attack on the white king.) 14.bxc3 Qc7 15.Kb1 Be7 16.e5!? (Shirov feels obliged to attack immediately, but preparing this strike with 16.Qg3 was also good.) 16...dxe5 17.f5?! (Shirov has his own way of attacking, but the simple 17.fxe5! is more dangerous to black, for example 17...Nxe5 18.Qg3 Bd6 19.Bxf6 gxf6 20.Be4!; or 17...Nd5 18.Bxe7 Nxc3+ 19.Ka1 Nxd1 20.Bb4 Nc3 21.Qg3 g6 22.Bd6 Qc8 23.Rf1! with white's edge, for example 23...Ne4?! 24.Bxe4 Bxe4 25.c4! bxc4 [25...Qxc4 26.Rc1!] 26.Qh4 f6 27.Rxf6 and white wins.) 17...Nd5 (Anand finds a clever way to protect the pawn on e6.) 18.Bxe7 Kxe7!? 19.fxe6 fxe6 (Two pawns on the e-file defend the black king well.) 20.Qg3 g6 21.Rd2 Rc8 (Anand is consolidating his forces for the final assault.)

22.Qg5+? (The wrong check. After 22.Qh4+! N7f6 23.Rf2 e4 24.Bxe4 Nxc3+ 25.Kc1 Qe5 26.Rxf6!, white can still equalize.) 22...Ke8 23.Qg4 (After 23.Bxg6+?! hxg6 24.Qxg6+ Ke7 25.Qg7+ Kd6, the black king is remarkably safe.) 23...Nxc3+ 24.Ka1 Bd5 25.Re3 Nf6 26.Qh4 Qe7 (The weak dark squares around the white king are more visible. Anand hopes to win at once with 27...Qa3. But the clever 27...Qg7!, threatening to open the long diagonal with 27...e4, is also very strong.) 27.Bf1 Bxb3 28.cxb3 (On 28.axb3 Qa3 mates.) 28...Nce4 29.Rb2 (After 29.Rxe4 Qa3 30.Bd3 Nxe4 31.Qxe4 Qc1+ 32.Bb1 Qxd2 black wins.) 29...Rc1+ 30.Rb1 Qc5 White resigned.

Solution to today's two-mover by W. Meredith (White: Kg5,Qh3,Rc3,Bd6,Nb1,Ne3,P:b4,c4; Black: Kd4,Na1,Nd3,P:e4,g6): 1.Qh5! gxh5 2.Nf5 mate; 1...Kxe3 or 1...Ne5 2.Bc5 mate; 1...Nxb4 2.Qh8 mate; 1...Nb3 2.Nc2 mate.