Sunday, Aug. 1, 1999 | 9:51 a.m.
When the final contest was completed after nearly seven hours of play, only 11 of the 36 scheduled games had ended in a draw.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the sponsoring Federation Internationale des Echecs, made the ceremonial first move for Mathias Wahls before a standing room-only crowd at Caesars Palace hotel-casino. That started 100 players on their quest for a share of the $3 million prize fund and the right to succeed Anatoly Karpov as the World Chess Champion.
Most of the world's top players are competing, with three notable exceptions. Karpov and former FIDE champion Garry Kasparov - who claims to be world champion - refused to play because of disputes with the federation. Viswanathan Anand of India was unable to attend because of other commitments.
The seven-round elimination tournament, similar in format to a major tennis competition, continues through August.
In the first round, notable upsets with the black pieces were posted by 85th-seeded Pavel Kotsur of Kazakstan over Sergey Dolmatov of Russia, seeded 49th; Adres Rodriguez (88) of Uruguay over Karen Asrian (52) of Armenia and Daniel Fridman (78) of Latvia over Utut Adianto (42) of Indonesia.
Winning with black is particularly important because, at this level, white, which always moves first, enjoys a significant advantage.
Those posting upsets with the white pieces were Levon Aronian (87) of Armenia over Eduardas Rozentalis (51) of Lithuania; Tal Shaked (91) of the United States over Vlastimil Babula (55) of the Czech Republic; Ralf Akesson (76) of Sweden over Anthony Miles (40) of England and Dibyendu Barua (72) of India over Alexander Khalifman (36) of Russia.
Three players - Amir Bagheri of Iran, Imad Hakki of Syria and Vadim Milov of Switzerland - received forfeit losses after failing to appear for their games.
Each game Saturday was the first of two in a mini-match at standard time controls, where the game could last more than six hours. The second game was to be played Sunday. If the mini-match ends in a 1-1 tie, a playoff match at progressively faster time limits will be held on Monday.
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Here is the score for the Round 1 game between Shaked (white) and Babula (black):
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Ne8 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.c5 h5 14.a4 Rf6 15.cxd6 Nxd6 16.Nb5 a6 17.Nxd6 cxd6 18.Nd3 Rg6 19.Qb3 g4 20.Qb6 Qf8 21.Rfc1 Qf6 22.Rc2 Qg5 23.Be1 h4 24.Nf2 gxf3 25.Bxf3 h3 26.Qd8+ Bf8 27.Nxh3 Qf6 28.Kh1 Qh8 29.Rac1 Bg4 30.Qxa8 Bxf3 31.gxf3 Qxh3 32.Rf2 Rg3 33.Qe8 Rg7 34.Bb4 Ng6 1-0.
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