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Anand keeps lead

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 21. Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia played out a draw in their ninth round encounter of the 66th Corus Chess tournament being played at Wijk aan Zee in The Netherlands on Wednesday.

Anand, with 6.5 points, is in lead in the 14-player tournament. He has won four games, and drawn five to stay on top.

Anand played the Sicilian defence, Najdorf variation with the black pieces. Kramnik castled queen side and sacrificed a pawn on the king side to open lines for his attack. The middlegame took a turn on move 20 when the big 28-year old Russian made a bishop move giving black a comfortable position.

When the centre was locked, Anand landed a rook sacrifice on the 23rd move. Unsure of where the game was heading, Kramnik opted for a drawing line and forcing black to take the half point on move 25.

The results : Peter Svidler (Rus) 5 drew with Peter Leko (Hun) 5.5; Zhang Zhong (Chn) 3.5 drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul) 5; Alexei Shirov (Esp) 4.5 bt Ivan Sokolov (Ned) 3; Zhang Zhong (Chn) 3.5 drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul) 5; Evgeny Bareev (Rus) 3 lost to Jan Timman (Ned) 3.5; Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 5 drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 6.5; Lok van Wely (Ned) 5 bt Michael Adams (Eng) 5.5.

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