Sujatha Srinivasan reports from the venue (Hyatt Regency, New Delhi)

10 Dec 2000 New Delhi

Anand to play tiebreak match on his Birthday.

Alexander Khalifman vs Viswanathan Anand

Vishy Anand with black pieces drew quickly to enter his favorite phase. Vishy is going to play the tiebreak phase for the first time in this championship tomorrow. December 11 the day Anand was born in 1969 will be very much looked forward to if Anand wins tomorrow and moves on to clinch the crown this time.

Khalifman arrives few minutes late to the playing hall but is very well prepared in openings. This St. Petersburg man is completely thorough in his opening preparation. Today he played another game with complete preparation. He seemed to be content with a draw in spite of having white pieces. Anand was also looking happy with the draw.

They both have reserved their energy for the grueling tiebreak session and it really is going to draw a big audience tomorrow. Normally tiebreak games are well awaited and with Vishy playing tomorrow the venue is going to be crowded. Khalifman’s opening preparation may help him in the shorter version of the game but the Anand can face anyone in this version of the game.

Bareev vs Shirov

Shirov bounced back to force a tiebreak against Dreev with a short clinical win. Shirov said that, "I misplayed the opening yesterday" when asked about his loss in game one. Today he seemed to be happy with the win in a forced situation though he had a plus 6 score with Bareev.

Bareev played one bad move and it was well utilized by Shirov to build up an attack on the Kingside.

Shirov has so far played tiebreak matches in every round. Bareev cannot be taken lightly for he recently finished runner-up at the World Cup in China and is well prepared for this championship.

Grischuk vs. Tkachiev

The game between Grishchuk and Tkachiev was a short draw. It looks they both wants to fight things out in the tiebreak. They both seem to posses strong nerves and their game is going to be very exiting tomorrow.

Michael Adams vs Veselin Topalov

Mickey Adams is the first player to enter the semi-finals. Today he drew the reverse game with black pieces against Topalov to smoothly reach the last four. He is going to enjoy the rest day while others will be sweating out tomorrow to join him.

Qin into finals.

Alisa Maric and Qin Kanying

Chinese Qin Kanying has reached the finals in the world women chess championships 2000. She now awaits the winner of the match between Xie Jun and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya. Qin who announced her intensions to challenge for the title earlier in the event is well on her way now. Qin looked in serious trouble at one point in her second game against Maric probably 35.Ne4 would have won for her but gradually Qin fought her way back into the game. Maric had to sacrifice the exchange to avoid an immediate draw but it didn't alter the eventual result.

Xie into tiebreak

Xie Jun who played the Sicilian deferred variation is into the tiebreak match against Ekaterina Kovalevskaya. Xie actually seemed to hold a better pawn structure but after the exchange of major pieces and in the Queen ending, Kovalevskaya played very well to exchange Queen’s and secure a draw.

Viswanathan Anand, Evgeny Bareev and Vladislav Tkachiev

Peter Svidler is seen with a ring in his left ear. There is a story behind it. The year 1999 was a very very bad year for Svidler in chess. He wanted to change some thing in himself. So he got himself a ring for his left ear. He didn’t find any change in his performance in the Las Vegas world championship after wearing the ring. But subsequently he faired very well in other tournaments and even thought that if had he got the ring a few weeks before the Las Vegas championships he could have gone better. So although the ring doesn’t signify anything it still has a story behind it.

Svidler is called a music wizard in chess circles. He said, "I don’t know why" when asked about it. He also added, "on a good day if not scared, I will sing. my connection to music is listening". Svidler has a good collection of songs from the 60’s and 70’s. He said that his knowledge of music is better than the others who are not connected to music.

Svidler apart from chess also plays other board games like billiards, snooker, pool and carom. He has his own favorites in those games and follows them.

About his performance in the world championship he said, "I was not in such a good form here" and he was defeated by Adams in the fourth round. He added, " despite the popular opinion, the knockout world championships have never been and in my opinion will never be won by some one who’s not playing his best chess".