NEWS
MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF

Vishy Anand takes sole lead

Vishwanathan Anand kept himself half a point ahead of the field with a 30-move draw against Vladimir Kramnik in the ninth round of the Hoogovens grandmasters chess tournament.

Anand now has six points from nine rounds, while pre-tournament favourite Kramnik has 5.5 points, which puts him second with three others including Jan Timman of the Netherlands, who also drew his game against Boris Gelfand in 33 moves.

In the other games, it was a bad day for the Netherlands players as Judit Polgar scored a good win over Paul Van Der Sterren and Alexi Shirov defeated Jereon Piket. Michael adams, with black pieces humbled Loek Van Wely.

Thus the second spot becomes crowded, with Kramnik and Timman joined by Judit Polgar and Alexi Shirov, with 5.5 each. Coming in third place is Gelfand with five, followed by Adams with 4.5. Vaselin Topalov could join Adams in fourth spot if he draws his next game against Anatoly Karpov. Alternately, Karpov can move up alongside Adams if he wins his first game of the tournament when he takes on Topalov.

Kramnik used the Sicilian defence and even had some extra material, but it was not good enough to force a win and Anand for his part preferred to play safe rather than try anything spectacular. That also meant some relief for Kramnik, who after the first four rounds has seemed to struggle.

Earlier, Vishy Anand was held to a draw by arch rival Anatoly Karpov despite the former's best efforts to secure a win playing black.

The two players, who were recently involved in a six-game match plus a two game tie-breaker for the FIDE world championship, were engaged in a clash that last little less than six hours and 60 moves.

Again, as in the world championships, Anand pushed Karpov to the brink, before missing a clear winning line on move 46 and allowing Karpov to escape with a series of perpetual checks.

The game was semi-Slav. Karpov did not have much of a plan in the opening and Anand gained some initiative. Around move 30, Karpov was already under pressure. Then came time trouble and Karpov got to the first time control of 40 moves in two hours with less than half a minute left, and that when the situation on the board was tough for him. When Karpov played 32.Ke3, it seemed Anand was on road to victory.

The decisive miss for Anand came on move 46, when instead of 46...Ra2, he should have played 46...E3. That would have got him a win through a forced mate in due course. The miss allowed Karpov to find perpetual checks and draw.