Shirov stretches lead; Anand signs peace treaty

By Arvind Aaron

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 23. Alexei Shirov of Spain regained his one- point lead with a victory over Sergey Tiviakov of the Netherlands in the eighth round of the 63rd Corus chess tournament at the de Moriaan here on Monday.

Viswanathan Anand, who won three games and drew the rest last time, is probably suffering from motivational problems after winning the world title recently. He drew Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria by sacrificing a rook for bishop and defending securely for four hours.

Shirov is on 6.5 points from eight games and is followed by the Russian duo of Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik with 5.5. Anand is on 4.5, having won one game and drawn seven. Five rounds remain to be played in this 14-player category 19 tournament.

Shirov won the public's prize for the best game of the day. It is his third such award here and carries a prize of 500 guilders. He is one of five undefeated players in the tournament, the other four being Adams, Anand, Kasparov and Kramnik.

Shirov tried to open with the queen pawn which he hasn't favoured for many years. Facing a Nimzo-Indian, he went for his old favourite, 4.f3 variation. Tiviakov, the tournament's punching bag, rose up with a flowing knight sacrifice on move 13. Shirov was on the defensive side, although he loves sacrifices and would have loved black's side. The captures which took place from moves 17-24 favoured white and Shirov used his extra bishop to win in 41 moves. Shirov meets Kasparov with the black pieces on Tuesday.

Anand played the Ruy Lopez as black, an opening he extensively prepared for at the FIDE World championship recently. Using the Arkhangelsk variation, the two players ventured into one of the lines Anand avoided playing as white in Teheran. Topalov introduced a novelty on move nine and Anand accepted it. As he took black's knight on move nine, Anand shared a smile with Shirov who passed by. They are the specialists of the line, having used it in Teheran last month. Now Topalov has been drawn into it.

On move 16, the key phase of the game came. Sensing danger to the central control of his position, Anand sacrificed a rook for bishop and pawn. With an active pair of bishops, he was able to draw without difficulty. White had a rook for black's bishop and pawn but could not break through. Topalov decided to return the rook for a pawn and offered a draw that was agreed after 34 moves.

On Tuesday, Anand faces Leko with the white pieces. In head-to- head history, Anand has four wins and 11 draws. In classical chess, Anand hasn't beaten Leko since 1996.

The results (eighth round): A. Fedorov (Blr) drew with V. Kramnik (Rus), A. Morozevich (Rus) playing V. Ivanchuk (Ukr), V. Topalov (Bul) drew with V. Anand (Ind), P. Leko drew with G. Kasparov, A. Shirov (ESP) bt S. Tiviakov (Ned), J. Piket (Ned) playing M. Adams (Eng) and J. Timman (Ned) drew with L. van Wely (Ned).

Round seven: Van Wely bt Piket.

Standings after eight rounds: 1 A.Shirov 6.5/8, 2-3 G. Kasparov, V. Kramnik 5.5 each, 4 A. Morozevich 4.5 plus one game on hand, 5 V. Anand 4.5, 6 M. Adams 4 plus one game on hand, 7 V. Ivanchuk 3.5 plus one game on hand, 8-10 P. Leko, J. Timman, L. van Wely 3.5 each, 11-12 A. Fedorov, V. Topalov 3 each, 13 J. Piket 2 plus one game on hand, 14 S. Tiviakov 1.5.

The moves: GM V. Topalov-GM V. Anand, round eight, Ruy Lopez, C78: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Bc5 6.c3 b5 7.Bc2 d5 8.d4 dxe4 9.Nbd2 exf3 10.Qxf3 Be7 11.Qxc6+ Bd7 12.Qf3 exd4 13.cxd4 0-0 14.Ne4 Be6 15.Nxf6+ Bxf6 16.Be4 Bxd4 17.Rd1 c5 18.Bxa8 Qxa8 19.Be3 Qxf3 20.gxf3 Bxb2 21.Bxc5 Rc8 22.Rab1 h6 23.Bb4 Be5 24.a3 Rc6 25.Rbc1 Bc4 26.Rd8+ Kh7 27.Re1 Bc7 28.Rd7 Be6 29.Rd3 Bf5 30.Rd5 Bh3 31.Kh1 Rf6 32.Rd3 Be6 33.Bc3 Rf5 34.Rxe6 Draw.

Harikrishna in a spot of bother

IM Pentyala Harikrishna is in a tight corner and trying to hold IM Van der Weide of the Netherlands to a draw in the ongoing sixth round game. After 64 moves, the game has entered the sudden death seventh hour of play with Harikrishna having a rook for his opponent's bishop and two pawns.

The results (round six): De Vreugt (Ned) 3 lost to T. Radjabov (Aze) 3.5, B. Gulko (USA) 3 lost to Vink (Ned) 1, M. Gurevich (Bel) 3.5 playing T. Luther (Ger) 3.5, Visser (Ned) 2.5 drew F. Nijboer (Ned) 4, Van der Weide (Ned) 2 playing P. Harikrishna (Ind) 3.5, M. Bosboom (Ned) 3.5 bt Hoeksema (Ned) 1.

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