No. 2 seed forced into tie-breaker with No. 50 seed

Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999 | 9:16 a.m.

Needing only a draw to advance, Shirov seemed to play more passively than usual at the beginning of the game. Milos created weaknesses in the favorite's camp and then advanced his central pawns and was about to win a bishop when Shirov resigned.

Six of the seven players who won their first game of round three on Friday clinched their mini-matches Saturday to advance to the next round.

The seven-round event, which will run throughout the month, features a $3 million prize fund and will determine the new world champion of the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE). FIDE was recently recognized as the official governing body for chess by the International Olympic Committee.

Of the six other players who won their first game of this two game mini-match, only the sixth seed, Vassily Ivanchuk of the Ukraine also won the second game. Ivanchuk dispatched Russia's Sergei Shipov, the 22nd seed. Shipov and others who were eliminated in this round pocketed $21,000.

Alexei Fedorov of Belarus earned the draw he needed to send the Netherlands' Jan Timman packing.

Nigel Short, 10th seed and the 1998 champion of Great Britain, agreed to draw in a much better position against Alexander Beliavsky of Slovenia to move on.

Two Bulgarians advanced to the fourth round with draws on Saturday. Veselin Topalov, the ninth seed, eliminated Lev Psakhis of Israel while No. 23 Kiril Georgiev completed his upset of the 7th ranked Peter Svidler of Russia.

A draw was also good enough to clinch Russia's Vadim Zvjaginsev's upset of Poland's eighth-seeded Michael Krasenkow.

Several players who drew the first game of this round secured their place in the fourth round with victories on Saturday.

Hungary's Judit Polgar, the only woman remaining in the tournament, garnered her place in the Sweet Sixteen by relentlessly pressing home an attack against Jordi Magem Badals of Spain.

Polgar is now closer to the men's title than any woman in history.

Top seeded Vladimir Kramnik of Russia eliminated 68-year-old Viktor Korchnoi of Switzerland. Kramnik won a pawn in the opening and relentlessly pressed home his advantage.

Many believe this was Korchnoi's last chance to seriously contend for the championship. However, most experts said the same thing after Korchnoi lost a match for the world championship to Anatoly Karpov 18 years ago.

Michael Adams, the fifth seed, became the second Englishman to qualify for the fourth round when he defeated Zoltan Almasi of Hungary.

Alexander Khalifman of Russia was the only player to advance by winning with the black pieces. He bested Armenia's Karen Asrian.

A fourth Russian qualified for the next round as 29th ranked Aleksey Dreev upset his countryman, Sergei Rublevsky, the 13th seed.

Four matches have seen draws in both games of this round. The eight players involved, Sergei Movsesian of the Czech Republic, Peter Leko of Hungary, Vladimir Akopian of Armenia, Evgeny Bareev of Russia, Boris Gelfand of Israel, Joel Lautier of France, Romania's Liviu Nisipeanu and Brazil's 62nd seed, Rafael Leitao, will join Shirov and Milos in Sunday's playoff matches.

In Saturday's Nisipeanu-Leitao draw, Leitao won some material early in the game, but Nisipeanu was able to assume a defensive posture that was difficult to crack.

Just when the Brazilian was able to break though to emerge a full rook ahead, Nisipeanu found a miraculous continuation which enabled him to force a perpetual check. This occurs when one player in unable to prevent his opponent from attacking his king every move.

The score of the third round's second game between Polgar, playing white, and Magem Badals:

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Bb4 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd2 00 9.Bd3 Nc6 10.00 Be7 11.Qe2 Ndb4 12.Be4 Bf6 13.Rad1 b6 14.Bb1 Ba6 15.Qe4 g6 16.Rfe1 Ne7 17.Bh6 Re8 18.Ne5 Nf5 19.Bc1 Nd6 20.Qf4 Rc8 21.Ng4 Bg7 22.Nh6+ Kf8 23.Qg3 Nd5 24.Nxd5 exd5 25.Rxe8+ Kxe8 26.Re1+ Kf8 27.Bf4 Rc6 28.h4 Bb7 29.Qf3 Qf6 30.Qe3 Qd8 31.Qa3 Bxd4 32.Qf3 Rc7 33.h5 Ne4 34.Ng4 Rd7 35.hxg6 hxg6 36.Be5 Bc5 37.Qh3 Qg5 38.Qh8+ Ke7 39.Bf6+ Qxf6 40.Qxf6+ 10.