NEW DELHI: Five-time winner Viswanathan Anand blanked Dutch tailender Loek van Wely 2-0 and moved within a point of the three-man leaders' group after the fifth round of Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament at Monaco on Thursday.

Anand tamed Wely in just 25 moves of their blindfold game and returned to maintain his supremacy in the rapid encounter after 53 moves.

Three share lead

The victories took Anand to the joint fourth spot at six points with Russia's Peter Svidler. The trio of Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik share the top spot at seven points.

Ivanchuk defeated overnight sole leader Kramnik 1.5-0.5 after claiming the rapid game in 44 moves.

In the rapid standings, Anand shared the lead with Aronian at four points.

Six rounds will be played.

Sasikiran winless

Meanwhile, at Zafra, Spain, K. Sasikiran (2.5 points) remained winless after drawing the sixth and penultimate round with the former Women's World champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the Ruy Lopez International chess tournament on Thursday.

The 72-move draw kept Sasikiran in the fifth place in the eight-player tournament.

Armenia's Gabriel Sargissian (5.5 points) claimed the title with a round to spare after beating Spain's Manuel Perez Candelario in 73 moves.

The results:

At Monaco: (fifth round): Blindfold: Viswanathan Anand (2) bt Loek van Wely (Ned, 1); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 3.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 4.5); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 2) bt Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 2).

Boris Gelfand (Isr, 3.5) bt Francisco Pons Vallejo (Esp, 1); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 2.5); Peter Svidler (Rus, 3.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 3).

Rapid: Wely (1) lost to Anand (4); Kramnik (2.5) lost to Ivanchuk (3.5); Radjabov (1.5) bt Morozevich (2.5).

Vallejo (2) bt Gelfand (1.5); Leko (1) drew with Carlsen (2.5); Aronian (4) drew with Svidler (2.5).

Standings: 1-3. Aronian, Ivanchuk and Kramnik (7 each); 4-5. Svidler and Anand (6 each).

6-7. Gelfand and Leko (5 each); 8. Morozevich (4.5); 9. Carlsen (4); 10. Radjabov (3.5); 11. Vallejo (3); 12. Wely (2).

At Zafra (sixth round): K. Sasikiran (2.5) drew with Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul, 2); Manuel Perez Candelario (Esp, 3) lost to Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 5.5).

Julio Granda Zuniga (Per, 4) bt Ivan Sokolov (Ned, 2.5); Ruslan Ponomariov (3.5) bt Hou Yifan (Chn, 1).

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