Anand meets Svidler in World blitz opener

Rishon Lezion, Israel, Sep 7 (UNI) Undisputed king of the faster version of the game, Viswanathan Anand will kick off his World Blitz Championship campaign with a first round match against Russian Grandmaster Peter Svidler later today.

The top seeded Indian is also the player with highest (2779) ELO points in the 15-round tournament, which features 16 players.

In his subsequent rounds, the Indian wizard takes on Norwegian sensation Magnus Carlsen, followed by Judit Polgar (Hungary), Teimur Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Sergey Erenburg (Israel), Michael Royz (Israel), Dan Zoler (Israel), Etienne Bacrot (FRance), Gavy Livshitz (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Emil Sutovsky (Israel), Illya Smirin (ISrael), Merab Gagunashvili (Georgia) and local favourite Boris Gelfand.

Round 1 pairing: Gelfand vs Gagunashvili, Gurevich vs Anand, Svidler vs Smirin, Carlsen vs Sutovsky, Polgar vs Grischuk, Radjabov vs Livshitz, Erenburg vs Bacrot, Royz vs Zoler.

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