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Bareev, Topalov on course for semifinals

Dortmund July 10. Russia's Evgeny Bareev and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria virtually assured themselves of advancing to the semifinals of the Candidates' chess tournament on Tuesday, holding the lead in their groups with draws in the fourth round of play.

Topalov nearly clinched victory in group one, but missed out on a win against Alexei Shirov of Spain. Bareev's draw was against Englishman Michael Adams.

In the other games, Germany's Christopher Lutz drew against Boris Gelfand of Israel, while Alexander Morozevich of Russia drew against Hungary's Peter Leko.

Topalov repeated Lutz's moves against Shirov from Sunday's round before varying on move 19. He always seemed to have a small advantage, typical of the main line of the Ruy Lopez.

But Shirov lost the thread of the position around move 40 and found himself in a difficult bishop-and-pawn endgame.

According to German Grandmaster Vlastimil Hort, Topalov missed a win on move 48. The players shook hands on move 58.

Bareev may have had a slight edge with more space against Adams's bishop pair, but Adams gave up the bishop pair to force opposite-coloured bishops and secure an easy draw.

The most exciting game of the round, Lutz-Gelfand, never left known theory. On the Black side of the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defence,

Gelfand varied on move 18 from his game against Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman at the Corus tournament in January.

In this line, White sacrifices a piece on move 10, Black gives it back on move 13 and White gives up another piece on move 14.

Gelfand grabbed a second piece on move 20 but promptly had to give up a rook to avoid mate.

On move 26, when both players were nearly out of material to sacrifice, they agreed to a draw.

The standings (after four rounds):

Group I: Topalov 3; Gelfand, Shirov 2; Lutz 1. Group II:: Bareev 3; Adams 2; Leko, Morozevich 1.5. — AP

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