Teimour Radjabov fancies chances against Anand

Mainz, Germany, August 15 (UNI) Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan is unfazed by the prospect of facing defending champion Viswanathan Anand and vows to produce best quality of game against the Indian in the opening round of Chess Classic World Rapid Championship beginning here today.

The tournament will witness record 77 Grandmasters and Women Grandmasters, including top guns Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler, vie for the top honours in various events.

''I don't try to achieve any specific result. We could play seven boring draws and decide the match in one long game. However that would be stupid. I want to fight the games to be of the highest quality. And. of course. I want to beat Vishy,'' Teimour, who had won Ordix Open 2005 and was offered to play against Anand this year, told UNI.

Anand and Radjabov will play a total of eight rapid games of 25 minutes each getting 10 seconds with each move. In case all games fail to deliver a result then five minutes blitz games will be played and the player with black pieces will be declared winner in case the game ends in a draw.

Meanwhile, another Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna is playing against Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany in the Chess960 World Rapid under-20.

Just before the start of the first game Harikrishna told UNI, ''Last year I played in Chess960 and had a good result. However, I lost two games. I hope this year I will do better.'' While Harikrishna and Naditsch were involved in a tough battle which ultimately went in favour of the German Grandmaster, who playing with white gave a stunning defeat to Harikrishna, Viswanathan Anand was playing a marathon Simuls against 40 odd participants which included two members of a famous finnish band called HIM. They drove all night to play against the Rapid Champion.

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