Anand downs Gelfand in Credit Suisse tourney

Picking his way delicately through the minefield of complications, Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand (2.5) of India overcame Grandmaster Boris Gelfand (1.5) of the Belarus in the third round of the Credit Suisse international grandmaster chess tournament being played now at the Congress Centre in Biel.

With this win Anand joins Anatoly Karpov of Russie in the lead.

Anand had difficulties defending against Garri Kasparov last year on his way to winning the Credit Suisse Masters. However, he was the epitome of confidence in his game against Gelfand, taking him on in the Sicilian Najdorf. The Belarus grandmaster looked rather unprepared for a shape battle, and ended up playing an unsound piece sacrifice on his 16th move in search of a rather risky attack.

Gelfand, who defeated Anand among others while winning a world championship qualifying interzonal tournament here in 1993, apparently expected the Indian ace to defend at this stage. Anand, however, launched a stunning counter attack, going for the inadequately defended black kind and turning the tables on Gelfand. Anand combined attack and defence superbly to catch the black king in a mating net. Gelfand, faced with loss of heavy material resigned on the 38th move.

Against Joel Lautier of France, Karpov meanwhile put up a vintage show. The Frenchman looked for complications from the beginning, realising that a slow positional struggle was Karpov's forte. Karpov for his part did not disappoint him, and after a series of attacking and counter-attacking moves, came up with the advantage of a pair of bishops. Lautier defended remarkably against the insistent pressure from Karpov's pieces, but was soon short of time.

From here on, Karpov caught Lautier in a vicelike grip forcing the French grandmaster to part with one of his valuable central pawns on the 35th move. When he tried to grab Karpov's undefended pawn, the latter dealt another deadly blow on the 40th, winning Lautier's piece and forcing immediate capitulation.