Vishwanathan Anand leads Rest of the world team to victory
Deepika, India
June 17 2004
Moscow, Jun 16 (PTI) Former World Champion Vishwanathan Anand led
the Rest of the world team to victory by drawing his final round game
with World No. 1 Garry Kasparov of Armenia team.
Despite a defeat in the sixth and final round, Rest of World held
on to their lead, winning the match with a narrow 18.5-17.5 score at
the Hyatt Ararat here yesterday.
Rest of the world began the last round with a cushion of two point lead
at 16-14, while Armenia looked for two extra wins, without defeats.
Playing the World No. 1 Garry Kasparov with white pieces, Anand
snatched the precious half point with a comfortable draw. The Sicilian
Pelican game between Anand and Kasparov, saw neither player willing
to take the risk.
A little out of the theoretical waters, Anand captured the center
“d” pawn and offered a draw which Kasparov accepted. Just into the
middle game, Anand held more than one even position on the queenside,
but Kasparov’s double bishop ensured splitting of the point.
Anand completed the event with two wins, a lone defeat to Leko and
three draws.
The only decisive game of the day came from the Vaganian-Adams game,
wherein the veteran Armenian brought in all his experience in the
Queens Indian game to down the English Grandmaster.