Anand overcomes minor hiccups

By Arvind Aaron

MONTE CARLO, MARCH 23. World champion Viswanathan Anand solved minor problems at the board and made a draw in his sixth round game against Jeroen Piket of the Netherlands to stay ahead in the rapid section and in joint lead in the overall section of the 10th Amber chess tournament here on Friday.

Anand has 7.5 points and shared the lead with Brain Games champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. In rapid chess, Anand has 4.5 points from six games and is in sole lead. Topalov leads the blindfold section with four points from five games.

Friday's rapid games were marked by fighting draws and only one decisive game emerged at the end. The winner of that game, Ljubojevic said, ``I should not have won this game.'' It was a double rook ending and Almasi lost a pawn up game with the white pieces in 60 moves.

Karpov showed his fighting qualities by holding a hard ending against Kramnik with the black pieces. He thwarted all of white's winning attempts.

Piket's advantage with the white pieces was merely a token as Anand played securely to draw the bishop ending by maintaining a 10-minute lead on the clock. It was a Slav defence and Anand was not in danger although he played with the black pieces.

``Anand did not make the precise moves and had some problems,'' his trainer GM Elizbar Ubilava said. Anand lost the castling right but with the queens being exchanged early, the mission was not hard to complete. In the reverse game, Anand will play with the white pieces. ``I have a poor score against Anand,'' said Piket who has beaten the Indian only twice in over 30 encounters.

Peter Leko lost a half point when Loek van Wely held him to a draw. By van Wely's confession, ``I was lucky like a pig.'' The Shirov-Ivanchuk match was a perfect draw with the black side having a slight but unusable advantage.

The results (sixth round):

Rapid: V. Kramnik drew with A. Karpov; V. Topalov drew with B. Gelfand; A. Shirov drew with V. Ivanchuk; Z. Almasi lost to L. Ljubojevic; J. Piket drew with V. Anand; L. van Wely drew with P. Leko.

Thursday's results (fifth round): Blindfold: L. Ljubojevic drew with A. Karpov; V. Ivanchuk drew with V. Anand; B. Gelfand drew with P. Leko; Z. Almasi lost to V. Kramnik; A. Shirov bt J. Piket; V. Topalov bt van Wely.

The combined standings after the rapid session of the sixth round: 1-3 V. Anand (Ind), V. Kramnik (Rus), V. Topalov (Bul) 7.5/11 each, 4 P. Leko (Hun) 6.5, 5-6 L. Ljubojevic (Yug), J. Piket (Ned) 5.5 each, 7-9 B. Gelfand (Isr), A. Karpov (Rus), A. Shirov (Esp) 5 each, 10 V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 4, 11-12 Z. Almasi (Hun), van Wely (Ned) 3.5 each.

The moves:

GM J. Piket-GM V. Anand, round six, Slav defence: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nf3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. e4 dxe4 8. Nxe4 Nxe4 9. Bxe4 e5 10. O-O exd4 11. Qxd4 Qf6 12. Rd1 Be7 13. Bc2 Qxd4 14. Nxd4 Nc5 15. Re1 g6 16. Bh6 Ne6 17. Rad1 Nxd4 18. Rxd4 Be6 19. b3 Bf8 20. Bxf8 Kxf8 21. f4 Re8 22. Kf2 Kg7 23. Be4 Rd8 24. Red1 Rxd4 25. Rxd4 Kf6 26. c5 Rc8 27. Ra4 a6 28. Rd4 Ke7 29. Ke3 Rc7 30. h4 h6 31. g3 Rd7 32. Rxd7 Bxd7 33. Kd4 Bg4 34. Ke5 f6 35. Kd4 Bh5 36. Kc3 Kd7 37. Kb4 Kc7 38. Ka5 g5 39. Bd3 gxf4 40. gxf4 Bg4 41. b4 Bf3 42. a4 Bd5 Draw.

GM V. Ivanchuk-GM V. Anand, round five, blindfold, Queen's Indian, E15: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Nbd2 Bb4 6.Qc2 Bb7 7.Bg2 Be4 8.Qd1 0-0 9.0-0 Bxd2 10.Qxd2 d6 11.b3 Nbd7 12.Bb2 a5 13.Rfd1 a4 14.Bh3 Bxf3 15.exf3 d5 16.f4 g6 17.Bf1 c6 18.Qc2 axb3 19.axb3 Qc7 20.Rac1 Rfc8 21.b4 dxc4 22.Bxc4 Qd6 23.Qb3 Draw.

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