World Cup winner Viswanathan Anand maintained his slender lead with a clinical 1.5-0.5 victory over Hungarian Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi in the ninth round of the 12th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Monte Carlo.

With two more rounds remaining in the 12-player double round robin tournament comprising one blindfold and one rapid game in each round, Anand (12 points) was half a point ahead of his nearest rivals Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Linares champion Peter Leko of Hungary in the combined standings.

Defending champion Alexander Morozevich slipped to fourth spot after settling for a 1-1 draw with fellow Russian Evgeny Bareev while Israeli Boris Gelfand was relegated to fifth position when he lost to Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia by 0.5-1.5 margin.

Anand lost his top position in the rapid standings and was overtaken by co-leader Bareev. But the Indian ace is slated to play the Russian in the next round and that could be his chance to regain the lead in this section.

Kramnik got back in the lead in the blindfold standings with a fine victory over Gelfand who now shares the joint second place with Topalov in this section. Leko, Morozevich and Anand are in joint fourth position.

Anand played a fine technical endgame to beat Almasi in the blindfold. The opening was a Berlin defence where Almasi was close to equalising on a few occasions, but never quite there.

The routine exchanges led the game to a rook and bishop ending where black's perennial problems in the pawn structure was exploited by Anand to perfection.

Almasi failed to restrict Anand from making decisive headway on the kingside after allowing a pawn bind that left his bishop crippled. Anand penetrated the seventh rank with his rook and got two passed pawns to romp home in 93 moves.

Surprisingly, Almasi did not even try to stage a comeback with his white pieces in the rapid game. Anand opened with the Sicilian Anzdorf and had little trouble in securing the dynamic balance out of the English attack opted for by his opponent.

Almasi settled for truce in just 20 moves vide repetition. Interestingly, Anand finished this game with more time left on his clock than the starting time.

Leko and Topalov scored maximum against Dutchman Loek Van Wely and Ukrainian Vasily Ivanchuk to come within striking distance of Anand.

Topalov was more impressive in his double triumph over Ivanchuk. In the blindfold, the Bulgarian made merry after Ivanchuk allowed a queen invasion of his territory and ended up a pawn less after the dust settled.

In the rapid, Topalov won a piece after wild complexities and scored after an intense struggle.

Leko capitalised on an erroneous plan by Van Wely in the blindfold and turned the tables after struggling for some time in the middle game. In the return rapid game the Dutchman was gradually outplayed.

Results Round 9:

Blindfold: Viswanathan Anand beat Zoltan Almasi (Hun); Alexander Morozevich (Rus) beat Evgeny Bareev (Rus); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul); Ljubomir Ljubojevic (Yug) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp); Boris Gelfand (Isr) lost to Vladimir Kramnik (Rus); Loek Van Wely (Ned) lost to Peter Leko (Hun).

Rapid: Almasi drew Anand; Bareev beat Morozevich; Topalov beat Ivanchuk; Shirov beat Ljubojevic; Kramnik drew Gelfand; Leko beat Van Wely.

Standings after Round 9:

Blindfold: 1. Kramnik 6.5; 2-3. Gelfand, Topalov 6.0 each; 4-6. Leko, Morozevich, Anand 5.5 each; 7. Van Wely 4.5; 8-10. Ivanchuk, Almasi, Shirov 4.0 each; 11. Bareev 2.0; 12. Ljubojevic 0.5.

Rapid: 1. Bareev 7.0; 2. Anand 6.5; 3. Leko 6.0; 4-5. Topalov, Morozevich 5.5 each; 6-7. Gelfand, Shirov 4.5; 8. Almasi 4.0; 9. Kramnik 3.5; 10. Ivanchuk 3.0; 11. Van Wely 2.5; 12. Ljubojevic 1.5.

Combined Standings: 1. Anand 12.0; 2-3. Leko, Topalov 11.5 each; 4. Morozevich 11.0; 5. Gelfand 10.5; 6. Kramnik 10.0; 7. Bareev 9.0; 8. Shirov 8.5; 9. Almasi 8.0; 10-11. Ivanchuk, Van Wely 7.0 each; 12. Ljubojevic 2.0.

The moves:

V Anand v/s Zoltan Almasi

    1. e4 e5       2. Nf3 Nc6     3. Bb5 Nf6     4. O-O Nxe4
    5. d4 Nd6      6. Bxc6 dxc6   7. dxe5 Nf5    8. Qxd8+ Kxd8
    9. Nc3 Ne7    10. h3 h6      11. b3 Ng6     12. Bb2 Bd7
   13. Rad1 Kc8   14. Rfe1 Nf4   15. Nd4 a5     16. Nce2 Ne6
   17. Nxe6 Bxe6  18. Nd4 a4     19. Nxe6 fxe6  20. Re4 axb3
   21. axb3 Ra2   22. Bc3 b5     23. Rd2 Be7    24. g3 c5
   25. Rde2 Rd8   26. Kg2 Rd1    27. Be1 g5     28. c4 Rxe2
   29. Rxe2 bxc4  30. bxc4 Rd4   31. Rc2 Re4    32. Bd2 h5
   33. Kf3 Rd4    34. g4 hxg4+   35. hxg4 Rd3+  36. Be3 Ra3
   37. Rc1 Kd8    38. Ke2 Ra2+   39. Kd3 Ra3+   40. Kc2 Ke8
   41. Rh1 Ra2+   42. Kb3 Re2    43. Ra1 Kd7    44. Kc3 Bf8
   45. Kd3 Rb2    46. Rd1 Ke8    47. Rd2 Rb3+   48. Ke2 Be7
   49. Ra2 Rc3    50. Ra4 Kd7    51. Kd2 Rb3    52. Ra8 Rb2+
   53. Kc3 Re2    54. Rg8 Ra2    55. Kd3 Ra3+   56. Kc2 Ra2+
   57. Kb3 Re2    58. Rg7 Kd8    59. Ka4 Ra2+   60. Kb3 Re2
   61. Rh7 Ke8    62. Kc3 Ra2    63. Rh8+ Kd7   64. Rg8 Re2
   65. Kd3 Ra2    66. f3 Ra3+    67. Ke4 Rc3    68. Rg7 Kd8
   69. Bxg5 Rxc4+ 70. Ke3 Bxg5+  71. Rxg5 Rc3+  72. Ke2 Kd7
   73. f4 Rc4     74. Ke3 Rc3+   75. Kd2 Rc4    76. f5 exf5
   77. gxf5 Re4   78. e6+ Ke8    79. Rg8+ Ke7   80. Rg7+ Ke8
   81. Rxc7 c4    82. Kc3 Rf4    83. Rf7 Re4    84. Kb4 Kd8
   85. Rd7+ Ke8   86. Kc5 Rf4    87. Rc7 Kd8    88. Kd6 Rd4+
   89. Ke5 Rh4    90. Rc5 Ke8    91. Rc6 Kd8    92. f6 Rh5+
   93. Kd6 black resigned.