The Hindu : Sport / Chess : No stopping Anand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

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Sport - Chess

No stopping Anand

MONACO, MARCH 22. Viswanathan Anand broke Vladimir Kramnik's resistance on way to a seventh straight victory in the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament here on Tuesday.

The 51-move victory in the blindfold game of the fourth round took Anand's aggregate to seven points, a lead of 2.5 points over Vassily Ivanchuk.

Anand and Kramnik had won their previous three blindfold rounds in this competition. But today, Anand ended the third seed's winning streak with another brilliant display.

In Petroff Defence, after the players castled on the opposite sides, Anand's advanced kingside pawns ripped open Kramnik's castled king. He gained a pawn and through his advanced central pawn created more pressure.

The Russian sensibly traded his rook for a bishop and the dangerous-looking pawn. However, with Anand closing in, Kramnik overlooked the loss of bishop and resigned at once. Kramnik plays white against Anand in the rapid game later in the evening.

On Monday, Anand blanked Francisco Vallejo to maintain a perfect score. In blindfold, Anand captured two central pawns to take control.

On the 28th move, Vallejo gave up his queen for a rook and bishop to avoid getting checkmated. But three moves later, when Anand was threatening to win another piece and `queen' one of his kingside pawns, Vallejo gave up.

In the evening, Vallejo had a chance to draw the rapid game but lost his way towards the end of the English symmetrical game that lasted 60 moves.

It was an equal battle until Anand broke through from the queen's side and threatened to `queen' a pawn in an ending involving a bishop each.

The results:

Blindfold: Fourth round: Francisco Vallejo (Esp) lost to Alexie Shirov (Esp); Veselin Topalov (Bul) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr); Viswanathan Anand bt Vladimir Kramnik (Rus). Third round: Anand bt Vallejo; Kramnik bt Topalov; Shirov lost to Ivanchuk.

Rapid: Third round: Peter Svidler (Rus) lost to Alexander Morozevich (Rus); Peter Leko (Hun) bt Evgeny Bareev (Rus); Wely drew with Gelfand; Valljo lost to Anand; Topalov drew with Kramnik; Ivanchuk drew with Shirov.

Combined point-position: 1. Anand (7/7), 2. Ivanchuk (4.5/7); 3-4. Leko, Svidler (4/6), 5. Kramnik (4/7); 6. Morozevich (3.5/6); 7-8. Bareev, Gelfand (2.5/6); 9-10. Vallejo, Shirov (2/7); 11. Wely (1.5/6); 12.Topalov (1/6).

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