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Anand readies for the big one

If you need the real scoop, it is a good idea to look at the numbers. Even in the stratospheric echelons of super Grandmasters, the ELO ratings turned out to be dead on.

In this year's edition of the Frankfurt Chess Classic (Giants category), Kasparov finished first, as he has done in every single tournament he has entered this year.

Anand finished joint second with Kramnik, and the last seeded Karpov finished fourth.

Playing three gruelling blitz rounds against the three best opponents in the world for four consecutive days is no easy task. And if each one of the games is a rapid game with 25 minutes to make all the moves, it further compounds the difficulty.

Kasparov came out as the king, unscathed, scoring 7.5 out of a possible 12 points. No one was able to defeat him. Anand came the closest on Day 1, but missed a winning move and turned the game into a lost one. Kasparov also had the satisfaction of winning a game against his archrival Karpov on Day 4, following three draws in their first three match-ups.

Anand finished with an exactly even score of 6 out of 12 points. His defeat to Kasparov should have been a win. It may have been a bad of case of nerves given the time pressure and the importance of the game. Anand won one and lost one game to Karpov, not managing to duplicate his demolition act of the week before when, against the same opponent, in a tournament played with the aid of computers, he brought in a score of 5-1.

Interestingly, Anand managed to hand Kramnik his first defeat, breaking a long-running streak of undefeated games. It is worth noting that Anand managed this against Kramnik's favourite -- the Petroff defense, which is famous for leading to drawn games. Kramnik lost a game apiece to Anand and Kasparov and made up for it by defeating Karpov twice, to end with an even score.

It might seem that age has finally caught up FIDE champion Anatoly Karpov. He lost at least one game to each of his opponents. His only win was over Anand. Also, of late he has been using up precious minutes to make moves in positions where he can ill-afford the time. His mismanagement of the clock has cost him dearly. He defended well on the first three match-ups with Kasparov, only to succumb on the very last day.

One very interesting aspect of this year's Masters category was the win by the chess programme Fritz. The entrants were 7 humans grandmasters and Fritz. The programme managed to squeak past and win by the narrow margin of 0.5 points, with a score of 9.5 out of 14. With this win, Fritz has qualified for the Giants category for next year's Classic.

At the conclusion of the Giants event, Anand took on a powerful version of Fritz, running on a Siemens Primergy 870 Server. There were four exhibition games and Anand won one game and drew the others to end up 2.5-1.5.

The Fritz team has gifted the computer and the programme to Anand. It is sure to be of immense value in his preparatory efforts for the upcoming championship with Kasparov. In the press conference at the conclusion of his match with Fritz, Anand referred to the championship, saying, "The big match this year will be the one with Kasparov and I hope to win that."