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Anand consolidates lead with fluent win

At Wijk Aan Zee in the Netherlands, Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand outplayed Frisco Nijboer in the tenth round of the Hoogovens grandmasters chess tournament even as his nearest rivals fell further behind.

Alexi Shirov, one of the four players only half a point behind Anand, was the only one who managed to stay in the hunt with a good win over Jan Timman -- who, incidentally, had been the only unbeaten player in the tournament till the loss to Shirov.

Vladimir Kramnik, the pre-tournament favourite, was forced into a draw by Vaselin Topalov, while Anatoly Karpov, whose form is under intense scrutiny, finally managed a win, his first in the tournament, overwhelming Judit Polgar in 32 moves after Polgar made a mess of her opening with weak queen moves on the 12th and 13th move.

Anand meanwhile had a comfortable time against Nijober. The Duth player opted for a queen move on 14 and from that point on, Anand meticulously destroyed his opponent. The position was so explosive that the one mistake of the Dutch grandmaster proved fatal, Anand with black pieces mounting a brilliant attack.

The Indian ace has three more rounds to play, in course of which he will face Shivor, Boris Gelfand and Michael Adams.

Shirov is now alone in second place with the win over Timman who, starting out with the Petroff defence, blundered on move 20 and gave his opponent a chance to shift to attack and force the win in 52 moves.

The Kramnik-Topalov game was interesting, but neither player seemed in the mood to attack, playing for the draw from the start in a game that followed the lines of the English Opening.

Michael Adams, who is to meet Anand next, scored a good win over the out of form Salov from a Sicilian Defence opening.

The tournament has a rest day on Wednesday, and will resume the day after. The tournament is scheduled to end on February one.

Points after 10 rounds: Anand (7), Shirov (6.5), Kramnik (6), Polgar, Timman, Gelfand, Adams and Topalov (5.5 each), Karpov and Piket (4.5 each), Van Wely, Nijboer, Salov and Sterren (3.5 each).