Sujatha Srinivasan reports.

Sujatha Srinivasan reports from the venue

Hyatt Regency, New Delhi

05 Dec 2000. A chat with Boris Gelfand

Boris Gelfand one of the favorites here to win this world chess championship is seen enjoying his rest day.

What do you feel about this environment?

Hyatt is very nice. I am enjoying it. Earlier I was in Sanghi nagar and that was a different kind of place.

What do you think about qualifying directly from normal play?

A rest day is good. A break from play. So I feel, not playing tiebreak games is better. Last year I was playing lot of tiebreak games.

What do you think about your next round with Shirov?

It will be tough.

Whom do you think will win the world women chess championship?

The Chinese have a good chance.

What do you think about the Braingames World chess championship?

Interesting match. One match affair.

How is your preparation for this championship? How far do you think will reach in this championship?

Good. I hope to do well.

Gelfand in the end added that the "Media coverage is very good in India".

06 Dec 2000 New Delhi Fourth round First game

Peter Svidler had some advantage but had to settle for a draw against Michael Adams

The longer the tournament goes on, the harder the competition becomes. The respect the players have for each other also increases and the result is quite obvious. They draw their regular games and plan to fight in the tiebreak. Tomorrow the players with white may dream to go through but the players with black have their thoughts on a playoff. In Svidler's words "It looks strange to go for a win with black pieces especially against a strong player" when asked whether he will go for a win tomorrow after drawing today’s game with Adams with white pieces.

Bartlomiej Macieja drew with Viswanathan Anand both seemed satisfied.

Vishy Anand was quite satisfied with his result today. He drew with Macieja from Poland in the first game with black pieces as he did in the first two rounds. Anand said, "Tomorrow I will play chess, it’s another day" when asked whether he will go for a win with white pieces. Anand added "Perhaps draw is ok, happy with it." He said that Macieja "managed to more or less keep things in balance".

The only decisive result in the men’s section was the victory of Dreev over Topalov. Although Topalov played poorly to lose his game. He still has his some chances in the tournament as he does have the white pieces in the second game.

Alexander Morozevich vs. Vladislav Tkachiev had a time scramble. These two players used to play a lot of tournaments together at the start of their careers.

The game between Morozevich and Tkachiev was a hard fight. Both the players displayed strong nerves in their first game and their game tomorrow is sure to draw big crowd tomorrow. Today at one stage Morozevich had seven minutes left whilst Tkachiev had two minutes both with seventeen moves to make. Tkachiev was sat on his chair with both the chair’s front legs in air. He remained in control both over the chair and the position. When he made his 24th move the time left on his clock was only 18 seconds. But then with addition of 30 seconds for every move they continued to play with the threat of losing on time. Morozevich once repeated moves but Frenchmen Tkachiev seemed to have other ideas. Then after move 30, Morozevich offered a draw that was accepted by Tkachiev with a relieved handshake.

Khalifman drew his game quickly against Lietao with black pieces to enjoy some rest after a tiring third round tiebreak session with Leko. Svidler seemed to enjoy a better position against Adams but in the end the game was drawn. The other three games also ended in draws leaving a lot to be settled tomorrow and on Friday.

Xie Jun, a winner today against Natalia Zhukova

There was more action in the women's section. There were only four games but half of them were decisive both for players with the white pieces. The defending champion Xie Jun played an excellent sacrifice during her opponent Zhukova’s time trouble to fetch a full point and to dominate the proceedings tomorrow. Zhukova who looked very confident yesterday about her prospects against Xie was all at sea after Xie’s piece sacrifice. Though she managed to complete her 40th move she was completely lost and resigned immediately.

Qin Kanying vs. Corina Peptan and Alisa Maric vs. Almira Skripchenko-Lautier

Netherlands Peng played badly today to lose to Kovalevakaya of Russia. She tried to corner the Russian’s knight but then that jailed knight came back strongly to occupy a better square and gradually it's influence gave her opponent the point.

Peptan drew with Qin in a bishop vs knight closed pawn structure ending. Maric drew her game with Skripchenko quickly.