| World No. 2 GM Viswanathan Anand won the Wydra
Rapid play Chess title in Haifa, Israel with a 9.5/14 score. Half a point behind were GMs Peter Svidler, who had led for a major part of the event, and Boris Gelfand. The three day event sponsored by the shipping company ZIM concluded at Haifa International Convention Centre on Saturday Feb 5, 2000.
An amazing
last day's results saw overnight leader Svidler handing over the lead to Anand who went on to clinch the rapid title. In retaining the title, Anand, received the winners cash prize of USD 5000. Recovering from an one point deficit from day one and day two, Anand scored heavily in the homerun, while Svidler and Gelfand suffered defeats midway. Anand was quick and attractive as he dazzled the spectators with speed chess.
"After the second round (day one) I stopped looking at my opponents and found that I was playing very well from the second day," Anand said. On way to his second title of the year, Anand beat Avrukh 2-0, beat Bareev, Gelfand, Huzman and Psakhis 1.5-0.5, drew Greenfeld 1-1, and
lost to Svidler 0.5- 1.5. |
