Top seed Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and GM Michael Adams of England drew first games of their respective semi-finals at the World Chess championship in Tripoli, Libya.
Topalov's winning streak was halted by GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan while Adams signed peace pact with Azerbaijan sensation GM Teimour Radjabov in their four-game matches.
The championship is being played on a knockout format with two games round till the semi-finals, which is a four-game match. The final will be a six-game contest, which starts on July 6.
The stakes are high with the winner's purse being US$ 100,000 out of a total prize pool of a little over USD 1.5 million. The losers in the semi-finals will get US$ 45,000 while the losing finalist will get US$ 70,000.
Kasimdzhanov drew a near no game with white pieces that is a clear signal of his peaceful intentions in the four-game match. Topalov on his part expressed happiness over the result as getting such an easy draw with black is always welcome.
Apparently, the Uzbek, had not got over his joy after the quarter-finals and was in his usual happy-go-lucky mood coming to this important game. However, such tactics can backfire as Topalov won't spare his white pieces so easily in all likelihood.
It was a Queen's gambit accepted and many games had already reached the position that Kasimdzhanov and Topalov arrived at after playing 15 moves, when draw was agreed to.
Topalov will now have advantage of playing white in the second game of the match and is expected to come firing on all cylinders. The Bulgarian has a fantastic record of nine wins and just two draws in his 11 games so far in the championship.
For Adam's fans it was a treat, as he uncorked a fantastic theoretical novelty with his black pieces and had Radjabov gasping for breath even before the queen-less middle game had actually begun from a Catalan opening.
No matter what Radjabov tried, this was certainly not his day as Adams hung on to the extra pawn sacrificed by white and gradual simplification even gave the Englishman a liberty to sacrifice two minor pieces for his rook.
The end, though was inevitable, came a bit abruptly as Radjabov missed a tactical trick in order to attack Adam's rook and let black pawn march to glory. The game lasted 47 moves.
Adams, had made it till the semi-finals in 1999 at Las Vegas where he lost to Vladimir Akopian of Armenia, whom he beat in the quarters this time around.
The 'Spider' Adams, known for his fine woven positional webs, will play white in the second game and Radjabov will be under tremendous pressure to pull one back.
However, the tactical fighter in Radjabov has given him many important victories with black against formidable opposition including the one against Anand in Dortmund 2003.
Results semi-finals Game 1:
Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul); Teimour Radjabov (Aze) lost to Michael Adams (Eng).
