Anand is Corsican Masters Champion

Ajaccio

Viswanathan Anand beat last year's winner Shakhriyar Mamedyarov by the convincing score of 2-0 in the final of the 2011 Corsican masters. The earlier rounds were played at the Theatre in Bastia, but the Final took place in the 'Palais de Congrès' in Ajaccio, Corsica's second city.

Final

Viswanathan Anand 2-0 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

In the first game, Mamedyarov played the Grünfeld Defence, but had the worse of the opening phase. Later however, he managed to fight back and obtained reasonable counterplay, but short of time he then went astray and the World Champion had enough time to convert his advantage.

In the second game, an ambitious pawn thrust by the Azeri in a Queen's Gambit was met by with a cool display by Anand. Mamedyarov's attempts at maintaining the initiative were thwarted, and again his time trouble led to unsurmountable difficulties.

Anand played much more quickly than his opponents in the whole event, and here it made a big difference.

Here are the results of the earlier phases:

The nine round swiss qualification event:

Rank	Title	Player	Rating	Country	Points	Tie-break	Perf.
1	g	SASIKIRAN Krishnan	2689	IND	7,5	44,5	2792
2	g	JONES Gawain C B	2624	ENG	7	45	2692
3	g	MELKUMYAN Hrant	2619	ARM	6,5	46,5	2647
4	g	FRESSINET Laurent	2696	FRA	6,5	45,5	2664
5	g	DURARBEYLI Vasif	2526	AZE	6,5	45	2542
6	g	BARON Tal	2505	ISR	6,5	44,5	2559
7	g	CHEPARINOV Ivan	2650	BUL	6,5	44	2597
8	m	ARNOLD Marc T	2505	USA	6,5	44	2629
9	m	BATTAGLINI Gabriel	2452	FRA	6,5	43	2455
10	g	GRIGORYAN Avetik	2614	ARM	6,5	43	2588
11	g	MAMEDOV Rauf	2660	AZE	6,5	42,5	2599
12	m	MULLON Jean-Baptiste	2379	FRA	6,5	42,5	2464
13	g	TREGUBOV Pavel V.	2602	RUS	6,5	41,5	2554
14	f	MASSONI Michael	2304	FRA	6,5	40,5	2387
15	f	BERTHELOT Yannick	2286	FRA	6,5	39,5	2421
16		BAGHDASARYAN Vahe	2362	ARM	6	42,5	2427
17		INANTS Aghasi	2288	ARM	6	42,5	2360
18	m	BEDOUIN Xavier	2406	FRA	6	41,5	2344
19	g	FLEAR Glenn C	2471	ENG	6	41	2435
20	g	SULAVA Nenad	2540	CRO	6	41	2394
21	f	COLEMAN Teddy	2312	USA	6	41	2366
22	m	DEBRAY Christopher	2402	FRA	6	40,5	2354
23		IVANOV Stojan Emilov	2221	BUL	6	40,5	2339
24	m	DIMITROV Radoslav	2424	BUL	6	39,5	2343
25	gf	MAMEDJAROVA Turkan	2277	AZE	6	39	2310
26		EGOZI Nadav	2173	ISR	6	38	2225
27		HUMEAU Cyril	2261	FRA	6	36,5	2165

The top 14 joined Viswanathan Anand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the knock-out stage of the Corsica Masters.

The first round of the knock-out event

Viswanathan Anand - Michael Massoni (the top Corsican player finsihed 14th in the swiss) 2-0

Avetik Grigoryan - Hrant Melkumyan 1.5-0.5 (the all-Armenian encounter)

Rauf Mamedov - Tal Baron 2.5-1.5 (after losing the fairst game, Ruaf Mamedov made it through anyway)

Marc Arnold - Krishnan Sasikiran 1-3 (the American lost out in the Blitz but took one game off the Indian no.2)

Laurent Fressinet - Gabriel Battaglini 0.5-1.5 (the big surprise, as Battaglini easily won the first game and held out comfortably in the second)

Vasif Durarbeyli - Ivan Cheparinov 0.5-1.5 (Ivan did enough, but Durarbeyli proved to be a tough cookie)

Gawain Jones - Pavel Tregubov 3-2 (in the Armageddon blitz game, in the most evenly-matched encounter of all!)

Jean-Baptiste Mullon - Shakhriyar Mamyedarov 0.5-1.5 (Mamedyarov dominated the first game, and that was enough).

Quarter-Finals

Viswanathan Anand - Avetik Grigoryan 1.5-0.5 (the world champion ground out a win in the first game before holding an unpleasant endgame in the second)

Rauf Mamedov - Krishnan Sasikiran 1.5-2.5 (a gritty battle which could have gone either way. Sasikiran won first, but then Mamedov turned the second rapid game round to stay in the match, but the Indian edged the Azeri at Blitz)

Gabriel Battaglini-Ivan Cheparinov 1-3 (two draws where the young Battaglini held his own, were followed by two Blitz games, where he didn't!)

Gawain Jones - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 0.5-1.5 (a disasterous first game by Jones gave the Englishman a mountain to climb, but he pushed Mamedyarov hard in the second leg, but his extra pawn with opposite bishops proved to be unusable).

Semi-Finals

Anand - Sasikiran 3-1 (despite playing relatively slowly Sasikiran was able to nullify Anand in the first game. In the second game he was much better and certainly missed one clear win, but being significantly behind on the clock led to him not being able to make anything of his advantage. In the first Blitz game, Anand provoked wild complications in which his slower-thinking compatriot eventually blundered. Anand was also too strong in the second Blitz game)

Cheparinov - Mamedyarov 0-2 (a first game domination with White and a super-solid opening with Black induced the Bulgarian to overpress, hence the whitewash)

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