Anand overpowers Lautier

By Arvind Aaron

MONTE CARLO, MARCH 22. Viswanathan Anand recovered with a sweeping 2-0 victory over Joel Lautier of France to maintain his top place in the blindfold section and jump ahead in the overall standings after five rounds in the 9th Amber chess tournament here at Le Metropole Palace on Tuesday.

It was his first 2-0 victory here in two years. His last 2-0 sweep was over Matthew Sadler and Predrag Nikolic in the 1998 tournament. The new spark found in him should make the tournament interesting. He has six points from ten games and six rounds or 12 games remain to be played.

Alexei Shirov of Spain has moved into temporary lead with 7.5 points from ten games but Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria who is on second place with seven points could overtake him if he wins his ongoing game against Boris Gelfand of Israel.

Former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia is on 6.5 points and in third place. Anand is in fourth place after this round which has gone very well for favourites.

Blindfold Games

Joint leader in this category Anand kept his top position with a confident victory right from the start with the black pieces. Lautier's play in the opening was questionable. Black obtained an early pawn break in the centre and equalised. White never seemed to have compensation for the pawn. It even looked more like a blunder than a sacrifice. After a marathon struggle lasting 72 moves, Lautier gave up in a pawn ending suffering his second 2-0 defeat in the tournament.

In the next round Anand faces Topalov. He made a 1-1 result against him last year.

About his game, Anand said he saw a game between Gelfand and Ljubojevic in this tournament last year and studied it. He used that idea and could not find where white had compensation for the pawn. ``The queen ending was drawn but I always had practical chances,'' said Anand wearing a confident look which was missing after his earlier games.

In the other blindfold game to end, the computer offered the players a draw after a three-fold repetition was reached in 39 moves. Ljubojevic took the offer and overall went down 0.5-1.5 against Karpov.

Shirov came close to a win but his extra knight did not matter in the end as there were no pawns left and Van Wely was able to make a draw after 112 moves. The computer made one more option to the players that 50 moves were completed and Van Wely grabbed the draw.

Rapid Games

This rapid round was the best for those in the upper half of the standings as they hammered out brilliant victories over those in the lower half. The Sicilian defence suffered the most losing three vital games of theoretical importance.

Leaders Alexei Shirov representing Spain and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria prevailed in style too over Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands and Boris Gelfand of Israel to share their top position with seven points from nine games. They are one point ahead of the rest.

Former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia fought an inferior position all along and turned the table on Ljubomir Ljubojevic in the bishop ending after 57 moves in a match between the oldest competitors of the meet. Karpov is in third place on six points.

Like Karpov, Kramnik too won with the black pieces against another Balkan player, Nikolic in 29 moves from a queen's gambit declined opening. Kramnik and Anand are on five points.

Anand scoring his first victory in rapid chess is a welcome change of form from the 30-year old. He played a new idea in the opening with the white pieces against the Sicilian Najdorf of Lautier. His play thereafter fell into place quickly and he recorded his first victory in rapid control in 34 moves.

``After my 17.Nb6, black's defence pretty much folded up,'' said Anand about his victory. Anand won the black queen with his rook and the result was never in doubt thereafter. The question will be did he use up one of his promising ideas reserved for a match against Kasparov as the No.1 player too adopts the same opening.

Shirov's opening guided him to a sparkling 26-move victory over Van Wely when he hunted the latter's king into a mating net. Van Wely who had not even developed his queen side in the Sicilian Najdorf resigned when he was threatened with a mate in four.

Topalov's thrashing of Gelfand confirmed that preparation of these lines are impossible by humans alone. It was a certain computer preparation. Gelfand did not know what was happening as his Sicilian Najdorf bowed to defeat in 28 moves. Topalov had not been resting at his Salamanca home in Spain all these days of his absence from international chess. Even if he was, his computer was certainly on duty.

On a fighting rapid round, there was one disappointment. Former tournament winner Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine took a quick 16- move draw with Dutchman Jeroen Piket with the white pieces in a game between two 31-year old players.

lThe results (5th round): Rapid: L.Ljubojevic lost to A.Karpov (Rus), V.Anand bt J.Lautier, A.Shirov bt L.Van Wely, V.Ivanchuk drew J.Piket, V.Topalov bt B.Gelfand, P.Nikolic lost to V.Kramnik.

Blindfold: A.Karpov drew L.Ljubojevic, J.Lautier lost to V.Anand, L.Van Wely drew A.Shirov, J.Piket playing V.Ivanchuk, B.Gelfand playing V.Topalov, V.Kramnik playing P.Nikolic.

lStandings after the fifth round: 1. A.Shirov (ESP) 7.5/10, 2. V.Topalov (Bul) 7 plus one game in progress, 3. A.Karpov (Rus) 6.5, 4. V.Anand (Ind) 6, 5. V.Kramnik (Rus) 5 plus one game on hand, 6. B.Gelfand (Isr) 4.5 plus one game on hand, 7. L.Van Wely (Ned) 4.5, 8-9. V.Ivanchuk (Ukr), J.Piket (Ned) 4 plus one game on hand each, 10. L.Ljubojevic (Yug) 3, 11. P.Nikolic (Bih) 2.5 plus one game in progress, 12. J.Lautier (Fra) 2.5.

lThe moves: GM A.Shirov-GM L.Van Wely, round 5, rapid, Sicilian B80: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.g4 e5 8.Nf5 g6 9.g5 gxf5 10.exf5 d5 11.gxf6 d4 12.Bc4 Qc7 13.Qd3 dxe3 14.O-O-O exf2 15.Bxf7 Kxf7 16.Qd5 Kxf6 17.Ne4 Ke7 18.Nd6 Bh6 19.Kb1 Kf6 20.Rhf1 Rf8 21.Rxf2 Nc6 22.Qc4 Bf4 23.Rxf4 exf4 24.Qc3 Kg5 25.Rg1 Kh4 26.Qf3 1-0.

GM V.Anand-GM J.Lautier, round 5, rapid, Sicilian Najdorf, B80: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e6 7.Be3 b5 8.g4 h6 9.Qd2 Nbd7 10.O-O-O Bb7 11.Bd3 Ne5 12.Rhe1 b4 13.Na4 d5 14.exd5 Nxd5 15.f4 Qd7 16.b3 Nxg4 17.Nb6 Nxb6 18.Nxe6 Nd5 19.Nc5 Bxc5 20.Bxc5 Kd8 21.Bxb4 Kc8 22.Ba5 Ngf6 23.c4 Nc7 24.Qb4 Qc6 25.Bf5 Kb8 26.Rd6 Qf3 27.Bxc7 Kxc7 28.Re7 Kb8 29.Rxb7 Qxb7 30.Rb6 Ra7 31.Qd6 Ka8 32.Rxb7 Kxb7 33.Bh3 Re8 34.c5 1-0.

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