The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand in joint lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007
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Anand in joint lead

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand produced a flawless performance to outplay Norwegian youngster Magnus Carlsen and moved into joint lead with Vassily Ivanchuk after three rounds of the Morelia-Linares Super Grandmaster chess tournament at Morelia, in Mexico, on Monday.

Playing black, Anand capitalised on Carlsen's inclination to play passively for a draw and seized the initiative in the middle-game of their battle in Queen's Gambit. Once Anand managed to establish a queenside passed pawn, he placed his bishop on a strategic square to force the youngster to resign in 40 moves.

The victory took Anand's tally to two points and made him go into Tuesday's rest day as a joint-leader. Like in the first two rounds, three boards ended in draws.

The results (third round): Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5) lost to Viswanathan Anand (2); Peter Svidler (Rus, 1.5) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 2); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 1) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 1.5); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 1) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5).

Wednesday's fourth-round pairings: Anand-Morozevich; Ivanchuk-Carlsen; Topalov-Svidler; Leko-Aronian.

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