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Anand bounces back with fine win

Vishwanathan Anand bounced back in fine style from a first round defeat at the hands of French grandmaster Joel Lautier, when he pulled off a fine win over tournament favourite Vladimir Kramnik in the second round of the sixth Investbanka Grandmasters tournament at Belgrade.

The win was all the more creditable because it came while playing black, against a player who has lost only twice (to Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short) this season.

Anand played the Slav, to defeat Kramnick in 45 moves in a crisp, aggressive game.

Interestingly, after two rounds it is neither favourite Kramnick, nor strong contender Anand, who is in the lead. Vassily Ivanchuk, with a second fluent win, this time over local player Alexander Kovacevic in 42 moves of the Sicilian, took maximum points in both of his games. However, he is yet to face either Anand or Kramnick. Meanwhile Lautier, who scored an upset win over Anand in the first game, split points with Alexi Shirov to position himself behind Ivanchuk (two points) with one and a half points to his name. Both Kramnick and Anand have a point apiece.