Anand through to last 16

Defending champion Vishwanathan Anand moved into the pre-quarter-finals of World chess championship, overpowering Grandmaster Vladislav Tkachiev of France in the rapid tie-break games 1.5-0.5, after the two-game elimination matches ended in a 1-1 draw on Sunday.

Meanwhile, former World champion GM Alexander Khalifman of Russia bowed out with a shock defeat against French GM Joel Lautier in the rapid games in another third round match at the State Kremlin Palace.

In the first game of the tie-breaker, Anand struck with an excellent understanding of the game. It was a Queens Indian defence and Anand voluntarily made his Bishop look worse to get hold of the important open files in the centre.

Tkachiev went for a dubious middlegame plan and had to bite the dust. Needing just a draw from the second game, Anand achieved a winning position but was content with a draw.

"I was just happy to move to the next round so this result, otherwise I would have been looking for a checkmate in the second game too," Anand said after passing through his second tie-break in the tournament.

"I think the first one was a very high quality game and something to be proud of; I am happy to get rid of Tkachiev, who is quite a dangerous opponent in Rapid Chess."

Against Lautier, Khalifman could only manage a draw with white pieces in the normal game and lost both the rapid games without much fight.

GM Evgeny Bareev advanced to the next round with two crushing victories over his Russian Compatriot Konstantin Sakaev in the rapid games. Earlier, Bareev had rallied back to win the second game to push the tie into the tie-breaks.

GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia was the first to advance to the last 16 stage with a quick draw against Belgian GM Mikhail Gurevich.

Gurevich, who lost with the black pieces on Saturday, had the advantage of white pieces in the reverse game, but failed to make use of the colour in the opening.

Morozevich started with the Slav defence and got the game transposed to a Tarrasch defence kind of structure where he got the thematic central breakthrough to equalise comfortably. The game lasted only 19 moves as Gurevich realised it was futile to carry on.

Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov also advanced to the next round with a fluent victory against GM Zhang Zhong of China.

Topalov, white, opted for the sharp English attack in the Sicilian Nazdorf and sacrificed an exchange on the 22nd move to rip open black's king side.

Zhang Zhong could do little to avoid defeat after that and lost the game in 30 moves.

Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel scored his second successive victory over GM Alexander Delchev of Bulgaria to advance with a 2-0 result.

Playing black, Gelfand capitalised on a middlegame blunder by Delchev to win a rook and the game in just 24 moves.

In the women's event being organised simultaneously, top seed International Master Alisa Galliamova of Russia crashed out in the third round after losing the second game against compatriot IM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Galliamova, who had to win the second game to force a tie-break, opened with Sicilian Richter Rauzer and then got into the complexities by castling on the queenside and launching her offensive on the kingside.

The middlegame was slightly better for Galliamova but Kosteniuk put up a valiant defence by keeping her king in the centre of the board.

Trying to force the pace Galliamova erred and sacrificed two pawns without much compensation and surrendered in 46 moves.

Former World champion Grandmaster Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia continued to excel and outclassed Ciuksyte Dagne of Lithuania for the second successive time to move up with a 2-0 scoreline.

Maya played the Caro Kann defence with black pieces and faced a rather unconventional setup from Dagne. Activating her pawns through the queenside Maya capitalised on a positional blunder by Dagne to win in just 19 moves.

WGM Christina Foisar of Romania also cruised into the next round with a smooth victory over WIM Elisabeth Pahetz of Germany in the second game.

Others who advanced to the next round were IM Nino Khurtsidze of Georgia and WGM Almira Skripchenko-Lautier of Moldova who also drew their second ames.

Earlier reports
Anand settles for draw, Van Wely loses
Anand enters third round
Anand scores quick win
Anand moves into second round
Anand wins second game
Anand shocked in opening round