Viswanathan Anand [ Images ] began his quest for a fifth successive Corsica Masters title in Bastia, France [ Images ] with comfortable wins in the pre-quarter finals and then the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals, Anand will meet the French youngster, Etienne Bacrot, while the other semi-final will feature Sergei Rublevsky against Alexnader Motylev.

In the first round, which was the pre-quarters with 16 players, Anand drew the first game with Nenad Sulava of Croatia [ Images ]. But in the second game of the mini match, Anand outplayed his lesser known rival and cruised into the quarters.

The quarter-final clash featured the experienced Mikhail Gurevich a former Soviet player, who now plays for Belgium. Anand wiped out Gurevich in both games to complete a 2-0 win.

Two big surprise results in the quarters saw the exit of fancied Alexei Shirov at the hands of Alexander Motylev who won in the tie-breaker. The first games in regulation were tied 1-1 and in tie-breaker Motylev won 1.5-0.5.

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In another match, Sergei Rublevsky beat last year's finalist Veselin Topalov [ Images ] 2-0 in a stunning result. Topalov is the fifth ranked player in the world.

Anand has won this event four-times in a row from 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. He is often called the 'Napoleon' and the "Lance of Chess" in Corsica.

Anand, Topalov, Shirov and Bacrot were seeded into the pre-quarters finals, where 12 qualifiers joined them. The games are all played in the rapid chess format. In last year's final, Anand beat Topalov 4-2 in the final, with a 2-0 verdict in the final tiebreak.

Results:
Quarter-finals: Gurevich lost to Anand 0-2; Alon Greenfeld lost to Etienne Bacrot 0.5.1.5; Alexander Motylev beat Alexei Shirov 2.5-1.5; Sergei Rublevsky beat Veselin Topalov 2-0.

Pre-quarter finals: Anand beat Nenad Sulava 1.5-0.5; Christian Bauer lost to Mikhail Gurevich 0-2; Vadim Milov lost to Alon Greenfeld 0.5-1.5; Csaba Balogh lost to Etienne Bacrot 0-2; Alexei Shirov beat Zhang Pengxiang 2.5-1.5; Artur Yusupov lost to Alexander Motylev 0.5-1.5; Sergei Rublevsky beat Arkadij Naiditsch 2-0; Amir Bagheri lost to Veselin Topalov 0-2.