The Hindu : Sport : Anand loses to Topalov

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Friday, May 20, 2005

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Anand loses to Topalov

CHENNAI: For the first time in the MTel Masters chess tournament in Sofia, there were decisive results on all the three boards. For India's Viswanathan Anand though, Wednesday was a day to forget, as the top seed lost to Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov. In the day's other games, Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov beat Russia's Vladimir Kramnik and Judit Polgar of Hungary defeated England's Michael Adams.

At the end of the sixth round of the six-player double round-robin event, Ponomariov is leading the table with 3.5 points, half-a-point ahead of Kramnik, Topalov and Adams. Anand is on 2.5 points.

When the organisers of this Category 20 tournament brought in a rule banning agreed draws, Wednesday's were the kind of games they must have had in mind.

And it was a dark day for Black, as White was victorious in all the games. Anand employed Queen's Indian Defence and was in for a surprise when the Bulgarian sacrificed his knight on the 14th move. Topalov, though, had only begun, as he offered to exchange a sacrifice four moves later. The Indian, however, wisely turned that offer down.

The queens were exchanged on the 29th move and the game entered a rook-and-minor-piece ending with Topalov having an extra pawn and his pieces were better placed too. Anand gave up on the 52nd move, as his king was besieged by White's knight, bishop and an army of passed pawns, threatening mate.

Ponomariov wins again

Ponomariov posted his second straight win when he outwitted Kramnik in 45 moves of Queen's Indian Defence. The Russian had sacrificed a piece on the 15th move, but Ponamariov defended well to score an important victory. Polgar won in 52 moves from a Petroff's Defence, after going a pawn up on the 33rd move.

The results (sixth round): Veselin Topalov (Bul) 3 bt Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2.5; Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 3.5 bt Vladimir Krmanik (Rus) 3; Judit Polgar (Hun) 3 bt Michael Adams (Eng) 3.

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