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Kasparov, Kramnik forge ahead

Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik both won their games with White in fifth-round action to take a one-point lead over their nearest rivals in the standings of the First Corus Chess Tournament on Thursday.

Holland's Jeroen Piket, still level with the two Russians at the outset of the round, went down with Black and fell back to a shared third place in the Wijk-aan-Zee chess event.

India's Viswanathan Anand was still at second place after he drew his match. He decided to run no risks and settled for the half point after almost five hours of play againt Judit Polgar who hasn't had a good tournament so far and played very solidly against Anand. The game was drawn on move 27 of a Sicilian Richter Rauser.

Kasparov's win against young Alexander Morozevich, a fellow Russian with only one previous game against the world's No. 1 player to his name - a loss with Black in the 1999 Sarajevo Tournament - was a straightforward affair. Playing a Slav defence, the same opening he had used in that earlier encounter, Morozevich came up with a theoretical novelty early on but Kasparov was not impressed. He won a pawn, simplified the position and coasted to victory in the resulting end game. Morozevich acknowledged defeat after his 45th move.

Kramnik's win was a completely different matter. Facing Smbat Lputian of Armenia in a balanced Catalan game, he overreached himself, badly messing up his position in his eagerness to decide the encounter as forcefully as he could. Lputian, who had managed just one draw in the previous rounds and was at the bottom of the standings with a mere half point, rose to the occasion.

With Kasparov passing by occasionally to shake his head at Kramnik's muddling, the Armenian steadily improved his game to reach the point where he could deliver the coup de grace.

Round five saw Kasparov take on Morozevich. Kasparov kept his 100% lifetime record (2 rapidplay wins in 1995 and a victory in Sarajevo last year). They contested a line of the Slav popular in the 1930's. Morozevich's 11. ...g5 is a highly unusual but known idea and Kasparov met it with the new (?) 12. Ne3. Kasparov stayed on top of the tactics and won a pawn which he then converted.

Korchnoi and Short halved their game after 18 moves of a Tarrach French. Leko tried a Closed Variation of the French (the French is a popular opening in this tournament) against Timman. The game drifted to equality on move 34.

Standings after 5 rounds: 1. Kasparov, Kramnik, - 4 points

3. Anand, Leko, Piket - 3 points

6. Morozevich, Nikolic, Korchnoi, Adams, Timman, Short - 2.5 points

12. Polgar - 1.5 points
13. Van Wely - 1 points

14. Lputian - 0.5 points