Chess was on display at the Olympics in Sydney, as two of the top players in the world contested a pair of rapid games - 30 minutes each for all the moves.
Viswanathan Anand arrived in plenty of time and appeared well-rested, but Alexei Shirov had travelled 39 hours from Poland (he was bumped from a connecting flight), arriving just six hours before game time. Awakened from a deep sleep, he was taken to the Athletes' Village.
Here is the first game; Mr. Shirov had White.
1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.Ng1-f3 d7-d6 3.d2-d4 c5xd4 4.Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 5.Nb1-c3 a7-a6 6.Bc1-e3 e7-e6 7.f2-f3
Thirty years ago, players assumed that if White played an early f2-f3 and Black was able to reply d6-d5 quickly, Black would be just fine. However, in the search for something good to play against the Sicilian Defence, White has tried many things, and in the past five years this variation has become extremely popular.
7. ... b7-b5 8.g2-g4 h7-h6 9.Qd1-d2 Nb8-d7 10.O-O-O Bc8-b7 11.h2-h4 b5-b4 12.Nc3-a4 Qd8-a5 13.b2-b3 Nd7-c5 14.a2-a3 Nc5xa4 15.a3xb4 Qa5-c7 16.b3xa4 d6-d5
This is the tenth high-level game in the past two years to reach this position. White is a pawn up, but his queenside pawns near the King are weak.
17.e4-e5 Nf6-d7
Not 17. ... Qc7xe5? 18.Be3-f4.
18.f3-f4 Nd7-b6 19.f4-f5 Nb6xa4
Luc van Wely played 19. ... Nb6-c4 against Mr. Anand - who had White in that game - in the blindfold stage of the Amber tournament in Monaco earlier this year. So Mr. Anand was familiar with the position, though he had not necessarily "seen" it!
20.f5xe6 Na4-c3 21.e6xf7+ Ke8xf7 22.Bf1-d3 Bf8xb4 23.Rd1-f1+ Kf7-g8 24.Qd2-f2 Bb4-a3+ 25.Kc1-d2 Nc3-e4+
The first new move of the game. Previously, Black had played 25. ... Ba3-b4.
26.Bd3xe4 d5xe4 27.g4-g5
White attempts to open lines with a direct pawn storm. If Black sidesteps with h6-h5, his Rook at h8 may never emerge from its cocoon. A different idea is 27.Qf2-f5.
27. ... Bb7-d5
With an eye to a mating attack against White's King, and the other to the threat of Qc7xe5, which if played at once fails to 28.Qf2-f7+ Kg8-h7 29.g5-g6 mate.
28.g5xh6 Ba3-b2 29.Rf1-b1!
White had to do something about the threat of Qc7-a5+!
29. ... Bb2-c3+ 30.Kd2-c1 Bc3xd4 31.Be3xd4 e4-e3 32.Qf2xe3 Bd5xh1 33.Rb1-b6 Ra8-c8 34.Qe3-b3+ Qc7-c4 35.h6xg7 Rh8xh4
Diagram: 36.Rb6-b8!
Amazingly, this resource saves the game.
36. ... Qc4xb3 37.Rb8xc8+ Kg8xg7 38.c2xb3 Rh4xd4 39.Rc8-c7+
The players agreed to a draw. White will follow with 40.Rc7-a7, winning the a6-pawn. Black will eventually win the remaining white pawns, but with correct play the ending Rook and Bishop versus Rook is drawn. Against a lesser opponent than Mr. Shirov, many players would have continued; Mr. Anand showed good sportsmanship by not attempting to press the point.
In the second game, Mr. Shirov won a pawn, but in the endgame lost it back, whereupon the players agreed to another draw. Afterward the players discussed the game freely in Spanish. Mr. Anand, from India, also speaks English. Mr. Shirov, born in Latvia, speaks Russian but not English. However, both spend much of the year in Spain, hence their knowledge of Spanish.
Former women's world champion Nona Gaprindashvili, is honorary chair of the Georgian Olympic Committee. She is also in Sydney, where she gave an exhibition in which she played 15 boards simultaneously against school girls.