Anand back to winning ways

By Arvind Aaron

MONTE CARLO, MARCH 26. Bulgarian super star Veselin Topalov is in joint lead after trouncing former World champion Anatoly Karpov 2-0 in the eighth round of the 10th Amber chess tournament being played here at Le Metropole Palace Hotel on Sunday.

Viswanathan Anand restarted his winning ways to defeat Van Wely of the Netherlands in the blindfold game to stay in joint lead with 11 points from 16 games in the combined standings. They drew their rapid game and Anand won 1.5-0.5 in the day and looked happy before the rest day on Monday.

Brain Games World champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia who shot into lead during the day was caught by Topalov and Anand who scored victories in their blindfold games. All three of them are jointly leading with 11 points. Anand and Kramnik are leading the rapid section with 5.5 points while Topalov is ahead in the blindfold games with six points from eight games.

Three rounds remain to be played in this $ 193,250 super tournament, featuring rapid chess and blindfold chess. Monday is a rest day. Anand still has to play Topalov, Kramnik and Shirov and these results will make a big impact on the course of the tournament. Kramnik has to play Ljubojevic, Anand and Leko. Topalov has to face Anand, Leko and Ljubojevic. Clearly, Anand has the toughest opponents. There is plenty of title interest in this event which normally is walked away by one big winner except when Kramnik and Shirov won it jointly two years back.

Sunday's Blindfold Games

Gelfand continued to drop his rooks in blindfold. Sunday's beneficiary was Kramnik. The latest was Shirov. Nursing a two pawn advantage, Gelfand put his rook on prise and Shirov received an unexpected gift.

The hero of the day was Topalov. He beat Karpov twice and repeated a feat he achieved last year. Former tournament winner Karpov rarely loses 2-0 and Sunday was one of those days. Topalov won with black after gaining from Karpov's ambitious play in a rook and bishop ending after 47 moves.

Kramnik defended well in the reverse game to draw Ivanchuk in 25 moves with the black pieces. They drew with plenty of pieces still uncaptured but the position became locked and neither to blame.

In the last session of blindfold games on Sunday, Anand as white, faced the French defence from Van Wely. Castling queen side in a Rubinstein variation, Anand won the black queen for a rook and minor piece. Anand sacrificed a bishop and ripped open the castled black king side. Thereafter, with some deft movements with his queen, he picked on black's weak position with threats. Van Wely resigned before actually losing them.

``It was a very complicated game, may be he had a defence, we have to analyse it deeply,'' Anand said after the game. At the dinner table Anand asked his trainer if he remembered their home analysis. Ubilava replied ``No. I don't remember that position.'' Anand said, ``Right! We did did not analyse it!'' Then Ubilava later said we might have discarded it thinking it was bad for the second player.

Ljubojevic failed to see a bluff check and an opportunity to win a piece against Piket. Finally he drew in 27 moves.

In the last game of the day, Almasi quelled Leko's winning attempts to get into a position to draw the game. But Leko, however, went on to win the game when Almasi came into the last few seconds on the clock to the three minute cushion of the former.

The day had many spectators which included No.1 ranked woman player Judit Polgar and Alexander Grischuk, who were the defeated semifinalists in Cannes.

The players were taken on excursion. As always, Anand, Kramnik, Karpov, Gelfand, Ljubojevic and Piket stayed back while the others went. Anand was preparing for most of the day and resting while Kramnik and Illescas were analysing for long. These two titans of the game stay in opposite suites in the same hotel floor.

Vlastimil Hort had a prediction for this tournament. He said Anand can't win only using technique, he should play an engaging game like Topalov. ``Kramnik knows what he is doing and his strong chess should make him my favourite,'' Czech born Hort said.

Anand's record against Topalov is good and even against Kramnik. In the last round, he will face Shirov, his match opponent in Teheran recently and also the defending champion here. The day's first games will have more bearing on the blindfold games. The odds may be on Kramnik but if Anand is going to defeat him in their individual encounter, it will serve a dual purpose for Anand who is looking for his third title here. Anand won in 1994 and 1997.

Anand has played very well so far except for the white game against Almasi. A victory there would have rattled the tournament newcomer in the blindfold game. The 1-1 score against Ljubojevic and Almasi could make a difference and he will need to score against his principal opponents Kramnik and Topalov to compensate.

As the tournament moves into a tough stage with the top four in the standings having to play two games among them, the possibilities look wider than it seems. The winner of the tournament will receive approximately $ 40,000.

The results (eighth round):

Blindfold: A. Karpov lost to V. Topalov, V. Ivanchuk drew with V. Kramnik, B. Gelfand lost to A. Shirov, L. Ljubojevic drew with J. Piket, V. Anand bt Van Wely, P. Leko bt Z. Almasi.

The combined standings after the eighth round: 1-3. V. Anand (Ind), V. Kramnik (Rus), V. Topalov (Bul) 11/16 each, 4. P. Leko (Hun) 9, 5. A. Shirov (ESP) 8.5, 6. J. Piket (Ned) 8, 7. L. Ljubojevic (Yug) 7, 8-9. Z. Almasi (Hun), B. Gelfand (Isr) 6.5 each, 10-11. V. Ivanchuk (Ukr), A. Karpov (Rus) 6 each, 12. Van Wely (Ned) 5.5.

Rapid standings (after eighth round): 1- 2. Anand, Kramnik 5.5 each, 3-4. Gelfand, Topalov, 5-7. Leko, Piket, Van Wely 4 each, 8-10. Almasi, Karpov, Shirov 3.5 each, 11. Ivanchuk 2.5, 12. Ljubojevic 2.

Blindfold standings (after eighth round): 1. Topalov 6, 2-3. Anand, Kramnik 5.5 each, 4-6. Leko, Ljubojevic, Shirov 5 each, 7. Piket 4, 8. Ivanchuk 3.5, 9. Almasi 3, 10. Karpov 2.5, 11-12. Gelfand, Van Wely 1.5.

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