The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Another draw for Anand; Carlsen snatches lead

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Another draw for Anand; Carlsen snatches lead

NEW DELHI: A day of rest did little to change the fortunes of Viswanathan Anand as his search for a first victory in the Grand Slam finals continued following a draw with Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk at Bilbao, Spain, on Monday.

In the day’s shortest encounter, Anand settled for a 32-move draw with black pieces in the Slav Defence game to retain a share of the third spot in the six-player field.

Magnus Carlsen, the prodigious 17-year-old from Norway, snatched the lead from Veselin Topalov after getting the better of Levon Aronian for the second time in six days. The victory with white pieces in 36 moves of Queen’s Gambit raised Carlsen’s tally to 11 points. Since the tournament rules allow three points for a victory, Carlsen managed to overtake Topalov who reached 10 points after a 73-move draw with Teimour Radjabov.

Humpy starts favourite

Meanwhile, second seed K. Humpy will begin as the favourite against third-seeded Chinese teenager Hou Yifan when the first game of the women’s World chess championship is played at Nalchik, Russia, on Wednesday.

In the other semifinal, fifth-seeded Swede Pia Cramling will take on ninth-seeded Russian Aleksandra Kosteniuk.

The results (sixth round): Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 11) bt Levon Aronian (Arm, 10); Veselin Topalov (10) drew with Teimour Radjabov (Arm, 6).

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