The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Leko wins; Anand finishes second

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005

Sport

Sport - Chess

Leko wins; Anand finishes second

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 31. Viswanathan Anand's bid to complete a hat-trick of titles in the Corus chess tournament ended with a last-round draw with Ivan Sokolov and saw him finish second best to Peter Leko here on Sunday.

Leko, who went into the final round with a half point lead over Anand, drew quickly with fellow-Hungarian Judit Polgar to reach 8.5 points. That left Anand looking for victory with black pieces for a joint top finish. However, Sokolov held Anand in 48 moves. The draw saw Anand end up with eight points. In GM `C', Parimarjan Negi lost to Macedonia's eventual champion Vladimir Georgiev to finish a creditable eighth (5.5 points) in the 14-player field.

The results: 13th round: GM `A': Ivan Sokolov (Ned, 3.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (8); Peter Leko (Hun, 8.5) drew with Judit Polgar (Hun, 7); Peter Svidler (Rus, 6) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 7.5); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 6.5) drew with Lazaro Bruzon (Cub, 6.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 7) drew with Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 4.5); Loek van Wely (Ned, 6.5) bt Nigel Short (Eng, 5.5); Michael Adams (Eng, 7) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus) (7).

Final standings: 1. Leko, 2. Anand, 3. Topalov, 4-7. Grischuk, Judit, Kramnik, Adams, 8-10. Bruzon, Ponomariov, Wely, 11. Svidler, 12. Short, 13. Morozevich, 14. Sokolov.

GM `C': Tea Lanchava (Ned, 4) w/o Leon Pliester (Ned, 5); Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 9) drew with Evgeny Alekseev (Rus, 9); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 5.5) lost to Vladimir Georgiev (Mkd, 10.5); Manuel Bosboom (Ned, 5) lost to Natalia Zhukova (Ukr, 10); Bianca Muhren (Ned, 3.5) lost to Harmen Jonkman (Ned, 6.5); Zeinab Mamdyarova (Aze, 4) bt Joost Wempe (Ned, 2.5); Alexey Korotylev (Rus, 10) bt Wouter Spoelman (Ned, 6.5).

Final standings: 1. Georgiev, 2-3. Zhukova, Korotylev, 4-5. Alekseev, L'Ami, 6-7. Spoelman, Jonkman, 8. Negi, 9-10. Bosboom, Pliester, 11-12. Lanchava, Mamedyrova, 13. Muhren, 14. Wempe.

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