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Anand blitzes Kasparov in rapid chess

The Indian, who drew his opening round match with Vassily Ivanchuk, beat Kasparov and then drew with Vladimir Kramnik in the third round.

This puts Anand in second position overall, just behind Kramnik who has 2.5 points out of three. Anand has two out of three, while Kasparov just one. The fourth player in the tournament, Ivanchuk, has half a point.

This is a four player, round robin tournament played on the rapid format, and is considered by the congnoscenti as the unofficial world championship in rapid chess.

Ivanchuk, of Ukarine, was a late entry following the withdrawal of Anatoly Karpov, who was among the original four when the tournament was finalised three months back.

This is the highest rated tournament ever at Category 22, and all players will play three games against each other, on both days, with the final to be on June 19.

The event is part of the famous Frankfurt Chess Classic Festival, and there are other tournaments going on at the same time.

Anand, playing with white pieces, defeated Kasparov in the Sicilian Defence with his usual 1.E4 opening. Anand as usual played extremely fast, and still had 11 minutes of his allotted time left while Kasparov, facing defeat, had just one minute left on his clock.

Kasparov resigned on the 40th move as Anand's rooks on D1 and E1 threatened havoc.

Earlier, against Ivanchuk, the Indian grandmaster played the Caro-Kann defence. Ivanchuk had the initial advantage with some aggressive play, in which he gave up a bishop and then forced another exchange later on. Anand, who had stunned Ivanchuk with an unusual reply of C6 to Ivanchuk's first move 1.Er, held his own and it was Ivanchuk who finally took the draw with perpetual checks after just 31 moves.

In his third game of the day, Anand drew in just 20 moves with Kramnik in a Nimzo Indian game.

It was a bad day for Kasparov, who lost two of his three games and managed only a win against Ivanchuk in his third game of the day.

Kramnik, who recently lost to Alexy Shirov in a match for the World Chess Counsel title -- Anand is not playing on it -- defeated Kasparov in the opening game in a Gruenfeld Indian game, with Kasparov playing black. It was a long, theoretical battle and Kramnik won after 52 moves.

Kasparov then lost his second game in a row, to Anand, before salvaging the day with a win over Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk for his part lost two of his games, and his half point came from a draw with Anand.

There are three rounds each day. On the second day, in the return matches, anand will have black against Kasparov and Kramnik, but white against Ivanchuk.

Results: first day: Round-i: Kramnik beat Kasparov, Ivanchuk drew with Anand. Round-ii: Anand beat Kasparov, Ivanchuk lost to Kramnik. Round-iii: Kramnik drew with Anand, Kasparov beat Ivanchuk.

Points: Kramnik (2.5/3), Anand (2/3), Kasparov (1/3), Ivanchuk (0.5/3).