Anand beats Van Wely

World champion Vishwanathan Anand and Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik remained in the lead after defeating GMs Van Wely and Vassily Ivanchuk respectively by identical margins of 1.5-0.5, in the eighth round of 10th Amber chess tournament, in Monte Carlo, on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov rejoined the leaders with a convincing victory over former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia (2-0).

Anand, playing white in the blindfold game, faced a French defence Bubinstein variation. The Indian won queen for rook and piece with a middle game manoeuvre. Van Wely provoked the Indian to sacrifice a bishop on king side for dangerous attack. Anand had to display a fine technique and remarkable tenacity to build up a winning advantage from a position that seemed unclear to score a 30 move win.

In the rapid encounter, the Indian star opted for queen's-Indian defence and achieved equality in opening but played safe and drew the game with black pieces after 25 moves.

Topalov outwitted former World champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the rapid game. The Russian consumed lot of time in the opening, while the Bulgarian kept on playing instantly. Karpov offered his rook for his rival's Fianchetto Fiancito bishop which was gladly accepted by Topalov.

The Bulgarian created a passer on queen file and rolled it to seventh rank. The Russian caught up on the clock, but could not improve the position. When the queens were ready to be exchanged, Karpov resigned, being material down in the endgame after 50 moves in the blindfold, both players were invovled in a tense battle of kings Fianchetto. Karpov, playing white, obtained superior position in the middle game, which cost him a lot of time. However, he became over ambitious and allowed his opponent a rook entry in his camp and lost the game after 47 moves.

Kramnik outplayed Ivanchuk in the rapid game. Playing with white, he faced the queen's Indian defence. He obtained better position thanks to passive play by Ivanchuk. Somehow Ivanchuk managed to pull the game to ending, but Kramnik played accurately and won the game.

The results (eigth round):

Blindfold: A. Karpov lost to V.Topalov; V. Ivanchuk drew with V.Kramnik; B.Gelfand lost to A.Shirov; I. Ljubojevic drew with J. Piket; V.Anand bt Van Wely; P.Leko bt Z. Almasi.

Rapid: V.Topalov bt A. Karpov; V. Kramnik bt V. Ivanchuk; A. Shirov drew with B. Gelfand; J. Piket bt l. Ljubojevic; L.Van wely drew with V.Anand; Z.Almasi bt P. Leko.

The combined standings after the eighth round:

1-3: V. Anand (Ind); V. Kramnik (Rus); V. Topalov (Bul) 11 points
4: P. Leko (Hun) 9 points
5: A. Shirov (Esp) 8.5 points
6: J. Piket (Ned) 8 points
7: l. Ljubojevic (Yug) 7 points
8-9: Z. Almasi (Hun), B. Gelfand (Isr) 6.5 points
10-11: Ivanchuk, Karpov: 6 points
12: Van Wely 5.5 points