New Delhi: India's Grand master Viswanathan Anand set up an interesting summit clash with veteran genius Anatoly Karpov of Russia after scoring a fluent victory over Mikhail Gurevich in the semi-finals at the 6th Corsica Masters in Bastia, France.

The 32-year-old former FIDE World Champion and two-time World Cup winner won the first of his two games with white pieces and then defended stoutly with black to come through a 1.5-0.5 winner against Gurevich, according to information reaching here.

In the other semi-final, Karpov, another former World Champion, put paid to the hopes of Alexei Shirov with a victory by similar margin to move into the final.

Anand and Karpov will clash in the two-game final later on Monday. A victory would give Anand the unique achievement of lifting the Corsica title three times in-a- row.

Anand, who had won his previous two rounds with wins from black pieces, scored with white through French defence in 36 moves.

The Indian then defended strongly as Gurevich, a former USSR champion, went all out to force the match into a play-off. Gurevich, who now lives and plays under the Belgian flag, made an English opening and came up with a novelty in the very second move.

But Anand had done his homework and was well prepared for everything that Gurevich could come up with. After a marathon 70-move battle, the match came to a king-pawn ending and the Belgian resigned in disappointment.

PTI