The game Kasparov - Anand was higlly interesting even before it has begun. I hope that nobody was disappointed as we could see new opening secret of Kasparov's team on the board. Somebody would probably disagree because "Club Kasparov" website announced (quoting His Majesty) that Kasparov's reaction to Anand's novelty was discovered by him over the board. Something must be wrong about it. Considering superprofessional approach of the highest-rated player and the following facts:

it's so naive to believe that Kasparov saw position after 8…Qd6 for the very first time in his life. The only idea about the long time he was thinking about his 9-th move one may suppose that he was just choosing between several promising lines worked out long time before. No matter what's right White's 13-th move is ingenious discovery. It's really Kasparov in his best, no chess engine can find such a move (however, good chess engine on one of Kasparov's SuperPentium devices can analyse the consequences quite thoroughfully). After 13.b4!! it became clear that while preparing surprise for Kasparov Vishy got trapped himself. To his honour one must admit that in such an unpleasant situation he could concentrate and found the best defence. At least all possible improvements to Anand's play suggested up to now are beneath criticism. Black's position after 13.b4!! might be simply bad as even after Anand's stubborn defence Kasparov could decide the game in his favour with rather trivial 24.Qb4! (this magic square again!) with the straightforward intention to play 25.Bb6 and 26.Qa5. Instead of this being rather short of time Kasparov played 24.e6? and his advantage disappeared at once - draw.

position after 12…fxe6 (13.b4!!)

position after 23…d3 (24.Qb4!)

Kasparov played 24.e6? and the game was drawn some moves later.

Somewhat really strange happened in the game Kramnik - Ivanchuk. Probably being still shocked after yesterday's massaker or maybe being badly obsessed about b4 square ( 14…b4!, Ivanchuk - Kasparov) Vassily played the novelty (9…Bb4+) which hardly deserves the place in such a high level event. The logical result of this new move was that one move later Vladimir could reach decisive advantage. After 11.Qxd2! the only thing which remains is to calculate rather obvious lines like 11…e4 12.Qb4! Qb6 13.Nd6+ Kf8 14.Bb5! Kg8 15.Ng5 or 13…Kd8 14.Nxf7+ Ke8 15.Qxb6 Nxb6 16.Nxh8 exd3 17.Ne5 Be6 18.Rc1. It's hard to believe that the player of Kramnik's level didn't pay attention to such a possibility. In the game he played 11.Nxd2? and with some active moves Ivanchuk equalised the game later - draw.

Position after 10…Bxd2+ (11.Qxd2!)

Kramnik played rather modest 11.Nxd2?, and the game equalised.

Adams - Svidler: after the opening where Peter came up with original 8…h5!? idea (at first played in Svidler - Sakaev S-Peterburg 1995) position had some strategical character despite the fact that the opponents castled to different sides. Rather close to time trouble Svidler outplayed his opponent in the tactical clash and the nice combination started with 38…Rxb3+! brought him material advantage. Resulting ending seemed to be absolutely won for Black but some inaccuracies by Peter in the second time-trouble let Michael build a fortress - draw.

Position after 38.Qd1 (38…Rxb3+!)

Position after 51.Kb2 ( 51…Qxh4! 52.Rd1 Qh2 53.Kc1 Qg2 54.Kb1 Kg7! was still winning).

Svidler played 51…Qxd5?, and after 52.Rf1! the game was drawn.

The new move 13…g5!? has the idea to stop White's active play on kingside and to keep white bishop h3 out of play for some time with the temporary pawn sacrifice. This idea seems to give Black enough counterchances but later Veselin didn't play precisely (for instance, instead of 19…Rc8 Black could try 19…Ne5!?) and Peter with some tactical means (20.Nf5!, 21.Rxf8+!) managed to exchange active Black pieces and obtained some advantage. However, all these moves cost him plenty of time and in time-trouble he missed good winning chances (instead of 35.Ne4 White should to play 35.Nb3!). The ending "B vs. N" which appeared after 40 moves didn't let White any possibilities to play for win despite his extra pawn - draw.

Position after 13.Bh3 (13…g5!?)

Recently: 13…Ne5 14.g5 (Ivanchuk - van Wely, Wijk aan Zee 1996; Anand - Topalov, Tilburg 1998)