The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand continues to lead

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Monday, Feb 25, 2008
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Anand continues to lead

NEW DELHI: Defending champion Viswanathan Anand retained his half-point lead following a 31-move draw with Vassily Ivanchuk in the seventh round of the Morelia-Linares chess tournament at Morelia, Mexico, on Saturday.

At the end of the first leg of this premier event, Anand heads the eight-player field with 4.5 points. The action moves to Linares, Spain, for the second leg of this double round-robin event to be played from February 28 to March 7.

The final day’s action at Morelia saw three decisive games after Anand and Ivanchuk had tested each other in Sicilian Paulsen.

Alexei Shirov used his experience to tame Teimour Radjabov in 44 moves of King’s Indian. Veselin Topalov defeated a luckless Peter Leko who faltered in time-pressure after the opening moves of Sicilian Najdorf.

Young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen surprised Levon Aronian in 40 moves of Ruy Lopez.

The results:

Seventh round: Viswanathan Anand drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr); Alexei Shirov (Esp) bt Teimour Radjabov (Aze); Magnus Carlsen (Nor) bt Levon Aronian (Arm); Peter Leko (Hun) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul).

Standings: 1. Anand (4.5 points), 2-3 Shirov, Topalov (4 each); 4-5 Aronian, Carlsen (3.5 each); 6-7 Radjabov, Ivanchuk (3 each) and 8. Leko (2.5).

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