Anand takes lead

By Arvind Aaron

DORTMUND, JULY 10. Viswanathan Anand scored an effortless victory over Jeroen Piket of the Netherlands in the third round to move into sole lead in the Sparkassen chess meeting here on Sunday.

Anand moved to 2.5 points with his second victory and is half a point ahead of the rest of the field. Michael Adams, Junior6, Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko are behind him with two points. Six rounds remain to be played in this category 19 tournament.

This round began on a wet and windy Sunday afternoon with a hope to wipe out the insipid draws seen in the previous round. The hall was filled with spectators and this time they were not disappointed, being able to witness three fully fought games.

Anand opened with the king pawn and faced the Ruy Lopez from Piket. The Dutchman surprised the Indian by going for the Archangelsk variation. Anand sidestepped a variation the same players battled to a draw in Monaco, 1998. After just 15 moves and while still in the opening database, Piket was down to his last 50 moves giving Anand a good lead on the clock. Piket had lost on time to Adams in round one and Anand had beaten Khalifman in that same round when his opponent could not hold on to the advantage in time pressure.

Piket's 15th move came after more than half an hour and looked insufficient for the demanding situation on the board that followed a pawn sacrifice by black in the opening. On the 18th move, down on the clock and a pawn, black lost his patience for a long strategic battle.

He opted for tactics and Anand responded very sharply by taking the offered rook at the most opportune moment. In the remainder of the moves Anand had to defend the wild complications that were coming up. In doing so, he exchanged his two rooks for Piket's queen. On the 28th move Piket resigned when he had to surrender either a knight or a bishop.

Anand said his opponent told him he had a `blackout'. ``He said he could not remember anything and came up with this half move h6,'' said Anand. Towards the end of the game, having to make a dozen moves in a few seconds, Piket turned red and resigned when he had to play with a rook against white's queen.

``I have no explanation for playing so badly,'' Piket told The Hindu. I had the choice to pretend it was analysis or resign on the spot,`` he said. ''I was preparing until 20 minutes of the game and went there totally confused with several things in my head``, he said.

Peter Leko bailed out with a 15-move draw offer after he got into a mildly inferior position against Akopian's French defence.

Castling on the queen side the 20-year-old Leko, also the defending champion, was expected to go on an offensive but black's seemingly anti-positional 12th move turned the tide completely. ''The position could have easily been worse and that's why he made a draw,`` justified Artur Yusupov, Leko's second. Four-time winner Kramnik and Bareev drew a thrilling 22- move encounter from a Slav defence. The duo are said to have had a pre-tournament training together and the result does not come as a surprise. Kramnik has lost one strike opportunity with the white pieces as a result.

Huebner had beaten Kasparov in 1992 in this tournament. This time he started with two zeroes and could beat the FIDE world champion Khalifman as he had white. But the Semi- Slav opening he faced as white supported quiet manoeuvring and his tiny advantage was not enough for a victory. They shared points after 36 moves.

In the last game to finish, Adams accepted the draw offer from Junior6 after 42 moves from a Ruy Lopez, exchange variation. The game was slow and Adams was able to keep the programme under control with the white pieces. In the position they shared the point, Adams had two knights and five pawns against Junior6's two bishops and five pawns.

The results (third round): V. Anand (Ind) bt J. Piket (Ned); M. Adams (Eng) drew with Junior6 (Isr); P. Leko (Hun) drew with V. Akopian (Arm); R. Huebner (Ger) drew with A. Khalifman (Rus); V. Kramnik (Rus) drew with E. Bareev (Rus).

The standings after three rounds: 1. V. Anand 2.5/3, 2-5 M. Adams, Junior6, V. Kramnik, P. Leko 2 each, 6 E. Bareev 1.5, 7-8 V. Akopian, A. Khalifman 1 each, 9-10 R. Huebner, J. Piket 0.5 each.

The pairings for fourth round: Junior6 v Khalifman, Akopian v Huebner, Piket v Leko, Bareev v Anand, Adams v Kramnik.

The moves:

GM V. Anand-GM J. Piket, round three, Ruy Lopez, C78: 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8. axb5 axb5 9.c3 d6 10.d4 Bb6 11.Na3 O-O 12.Nxb5 exd4 13.cxd4 Bg4 14.Ra4 Re8 15.Re1 h6 16.Bc2 d5 17.e5 Ne4 18.Nc3 Rxe5 19. Nxe4 Rxe4 20.Bxe4 dxe4 21.d5 Bxf3 22.gxf3 Qh4 23.Raxe4 Qxf2+24.Kh1 f5 25.Rc4 Na5 26.Rf1 Nxc4 27.Rxf2 Bxf2 28.Qe2 1-0.

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