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

07 Dec 2000 New Delhi

Vishy Anand the first to enter Quarterfinals.

Anand through after a win in the second game against Macieja

Vishy Anand seems to be enjoying his stay in Delhi. He comes early to the playing hall, plays as if destined to win, speaks to the press on his own way and leaves as he enters. This bespectacled gentleman is the one whose progress is very much followed by every individual in this country of one billion people. By winning quickly he seems to have read their minds and was the first person to move into the Quarterfinals. Anand who believes in principles is to meet defending champion Khalifman in the next round.

Macieja made a terrible blunder on move 23 and Anand exploited it immediately. Had he not allowed the piece sacrifice then the game could have carried on for a long time although the position was quite favourable to Anand. Anand after the game was seen exchanging words with a visibly smiling young Macieja and it looked Macieja had taken the loss as a learning experience for him. Anand in the pressroom said all he did was "just play chess and be objective" when asked whether he badly wanted to win the todays game. He also added, "I am quite happy, I don’t have to play tomorrow."

Defending champion into Quarterfinals.

Khalifman, the probably the only world champion who is not expected to retain his title and is not under any sort of pressure. He was quite happy to make the quarterfinals without a tiebreak. This tall bearded gentleman found a relatively easy opponent in the giant killing Lietao. His next round opponent Vishy is a different class "He is in great form".

Frenchman on a high.

Tkachiev defeats Morozevich

Tkachiev the young Frenchmen is progressing in a fabulous way in this championship. He today defeated Morozevich of Russia in an excellent game. This leather jacket clad man is really made of steel as far as his nerves are concerned. He showed excellent sense of time management in his game yesterday and today he continued his mastery of it. He made his 40th move when his clock time showed 40 seconds remaining but then he played strongly to win with an extra passed pawn in a double rook ending. In doing so he created a big upset at this stage of the championships with his opponent enjoying a near 100 elo rating points advantage over him. He awaits the winner of the tiebreak match between Ehlvest and Grischuk in the Quarterfinals.

Ehlvest and Grishchuk played an interesting game today. Ehlvest had rook, bishop and a knight for Grishchuk’s Queen. Grishchuk sacrificed an exchange to force a draw or checkmate his opponent. His experienced opponent repeated moves to take his chances in the tiebreak tomorrow.

Russian Kovalevaskaya speaks no English but was the first women to progress to the semi-finals. She drew with Netherland's Peng in the second game to close out the match in her favor after winning the first game. Peng who defeated Bhagyashree Thipsay in the first round was very much followed by the Indian spectators. Her loss has really disappointed the locals.

The defending champion Xie Jun moved into the semi-finals with a draw against her more popular opponent Zhukova. Xie now plays Kovalevaskaya.

There will be five tiebreak matches played in the men’s section and two in the women’s section tomorrow.

The number of spectators is increasing as the championship grows and though the number of boards is going to decrease the standard is definitely going to rise. Once again the tiebreak is very much awaited for it really gives the spectators the feeling of satisfaction in spending the day here.