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Anand holds Adams, retains lead

Vishwanathan Anand retained his half point lead over the field as he played a quick draw with English grandmaster Michael Adams in the 11th round of the Hoogovens grandmaster chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands) on Friday.

The draw gives Anand 7.5 points out of 11, while his nearest rival Alexy Shirov has seven points after his draw with Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands.

The change in standings at the top half came in the form of Vladimir Kramnik, who after slipping to third position came back to join Shirov in the second place beating Judit Polgar of Hungary. For Kramnik, this win which came in 46 moves from a Sicilian-Sveshnikov must have come as a big relief after being winless for the six rounds preceeding that.

Anand and Adams, who fought a tense clash in the final round of the qualifiers at the world championships earlier to decide the challenger to Karpov, played quickly. Clearly the last battle, which Anand won in the tie-breaker, made them wary about each other. Adams played the Queen's Indian Defence and the position was equal after about 19 moves. With no obvious winning line in sight, Anand offered a draw and Adams quickly took it.

With two rounds to go, Anand leads with Shirov and Kramnik half a point behind him, on second place. Interestingly, the the pairings for the last two rounds have Anand playing, with white, the last round against none other than Shirov, making it a virtual final unless Kramnik does something dramatic in his own two rounds to come.

In another significant result, Anatoly Karpov notched his second straight win beating Paul van der Sterren of the Netherlands. Karpov won in a very authoritative fashion in just 26 moves, following the Nimzo Indian where Karpov had black pieces. However, for Karpov, who recently pipped a tired Anand to the FIDE crown, there is still a daunting meeting ahead, against Kramnik. That is in the 13th round, with Karpov playing white.

Valery Salov meanwhile beat Boris Gelfand and that constituted an upset of sorts considering the steady form Gelfand had shown thus far in the tournament. Salov, as is his style, ground down Gelfand in a long game lasting 63 moves from a Sicilian Defence.

Timman, who used the Ruy Lopez opening againg Piket, missed a chance of getting closer to the leaders with a draw and is at 6 points. Another one to be pitted against a relatively weak opponent but who could not gain a win was Topalov, who played Nijboer. Nijboer, with black, drew in a Kings Indian main line after 43 moves. Topalov has six points, the same as Timman and Adams.

Pairings for the 12th round: Jeroen Piket-Anatoly Karpov; Vladimir Kramnik-Paul Van Der Sterren; Friso Nijboer-Judit Polgar; Michael Adams-Veselin Topalov; Boris Gelfand-Viswanathan Anand; Alexei Shirov-Valery Salov; Jan Timman-Loek Van Wely.