Anand Remains Supreme in Mainz
Anand Wins GrenkeLeasing Rapid Chess World Championship in Close Match
19.08.2007 – Sunday, immediately after the end of the Ordix Open, with 762 participants the world’s biggest rapid chess tournament, the Chess Classic Mainz finished with another highlight: The match for the Grenke Leasing Rapid Chess World Championship between Anand and Aronian. Three days ago the same players had played the final of the FiNet Chess960 World Championship. This was a tense and exciting match, but here even more was at stake: Anand wanted to take revenge for his loss and prove that he is still the world’s best rapid player. Both players also had the coming World Championship in Mexico in mind: Here, both Aronian and Anand are among the favorites and the winner of Mainz would gain a psychological edge over his rival. At the same time both players had to be careful not to reveal too much of their preparation for Mexico.
Maybe this was the reason why they both decided to proceed carefully. In their first game they repeated the Ruy Lopez of their game in the preliminary but while Anand was better in that game, he now failed to get anything out of the opening and quickly agreed to a draw.
In contrast to Anand and Aronian, Bacrot and Kasimdzhanov, who were playing for third place, could take it easy. Saturday evening they were even seen sitting together, drinking wine and exchanging jokes. Maybe they agreed not to care too much for the result of the match but play entertaining chess for the audience. Which they did. In the first game Kasimdzhanov pursued a kingside attack but in the crucial moment did not dare to sacrifice on g6, which Shirov in the analysis room considered to be winning. With less time on the clock Kasimdzhanov later lost his way in the complications and failed to see a perpetual with a rook down, which brought Bacrot his first win.
Here is the full article from the official site.
Anand is invincible in rapid.