The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand back in joint lead

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Anand back in joint lead

Anand outplays Wang Hao
In Group ‘B', Ganguly loses to Fressinet

NEW DELHI: World champion Viswanathan Anand produced a piece of brilliance to outplay China's Wang Hao and jumped back into joint lead with three points after four rounds of the Tata Steel chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Tuesday.

After a late victory over Spain's Alexei Shirov gave USA's Hikaru Nakamura the lead at 2.5 points after the third round, Anand's triumph in 33 moves put him ahead again. Later, Nakamura managed to hold Anish Giri and give Anand company.

Anand, playing white, sacrificed a knight on the 16th move to gain a strong position. He forced Hao, ranked 17th in the world, to trade a knight and a bishop for a rook by the 25th move. Thereafter, Anand cleaned up two queenside pawns to establish two clear passed-pawns. Sensing the beginning of the end, Hao resigned to give Anand his second win in four days.

Other winners

Third-seeded Ukrainian Levon Aronian and Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave were the other winners of the day.

In Group ‘B', Surya Shekhar Ganguly (1.5) lost to third-seeded Frenchman Laurent Fressinet in 36 moves.

In Group ‘C', Tania Sachdev succumbed to Ukraine's Ilya Nyzhnyk to stay at two points.

The results (fourth round): Group ‘A': Viswanathan Anand (3) bt Wang Hao (Chn, 1); Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 1.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2); Levon Aronian (Arm, 2.5) bt Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2).

Alexei Shirov (Esp, 0.5) lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2.5); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 2) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5); Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 2) drew with Jan Smeets (Ned, 2); Anish Giri (2.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 3).

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