The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand closes in on Leko

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Sport

Sport - Chess

Anand closes in on Leko

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 30. Viswanathan Anand pulled off an incredible victory over Michael Adams and made a late bid to catch up with leader Peter Leko in the 12th and penultimate round of the Corus chess tournament here on Saturday. Anand's 42-move victory over a previously undefeated Adams placed him solely in the second spot with 7.5 points.

Desperate to make the most of the white pieces, Anand began aggressively in Queens Indian and chose to trade his rook for a bishop and pawn by the 16th move. After a series of exchanges, Anand promoted his two queenside pawns with the help of a bishop pair. Adams, in spite of having a rook and bishop, could do little as Anand cleverly declined his rival's bait of a rook offer and threatened to go ahead with his plan to `queen' one of the pawns. At this stage, a hapless Adams gave up.

In GM `C', Parimarjan Negi surrendered in 55 moves to Ukraine's Natalia Zhukova.

The results (12th round):

GM `A': Viswanathan Anand (7.5) bt Michael Adams (Eng) (6.5); Alexander Grischuk (Rus) (6.5) drew with Leok van Wely (Ned) (5.5); Nigel Short (Eng) (5.5) bt Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) (6.5); Alexander Morozevich (Rus) (4) lost to Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) (6); Lazaro Bruzon (Cub) (6) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus) (5.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul) (7) drew with Peter Leko (Hun) (8); Judit Polgar (Hun) (6.5) bt Ivan Sokolov (Ned) (3).

GM `C': Leon Pliester (Ned) (4) drew with Alexey Korotylev (Rus) (9); Wouter Spoulman (Ned) (6.5) bt Zeinab Mamedyarova (Aze) (3); Joost Wempe (Ned) (2.5) bt Bianca Muhren (Ned) (3.5); Harmen Jonkman (Ned) (5.5) bt Manuel Bosboom (Ned) (5); Natalia Zhukova (Ukr) (9) bt Parimarjan Negi (5.5); Vladimir Georgiev (Mkd) (9.5) bt Erwin L'Ami (Ned) (8.5); Evgeny Alekseev (Rus) (8.5) received walkover from Tea Lanchava (Ned) (4) (withdrawn).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport