Anand-Kramnik game drawn

By Arvind Aaron

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 21. After a battle, the much-awaited Vladimir Kramnik versus Viswanathan Anand game ended in a draw here on Saturday.

On an otherwise dull day dominated by draws, leader Alexei Shirov scored his fourth victory to stretch his lead to a full point at the end of the sixth round in the 63rd Corus chess tournament here on Saturday.

Garry Kasparov, Kramnik and Alexander Morozevich, the Russian trio, are in joint second place on four points. Anand and Michael Adams are in the next spot with 3.5 points.

The Anand-Kramnik draw took a lot of interest out of this big event. It was the first time they were playing since winning official and unofficial world titles.

Anand's opening choice was the Nimzo-Indian defence with black. After white's 21st move black was left with a protected passed pawn which is good for any ending. Kramnik's decision was to go for a middle game attack. In a restricted conflict on the few flanks, black's knights were effective and Kramnik could not get his attack going. From move 30 white threw away a possible advantage and played into black's hands. Also Kramnik had just three minutes for his last 10 moves. Just when everyone thought black was gaining the upperhand, Anand played 33...Qxb5 losing a chance to keep the advantage.

Black's draw offer on move 35 was in line with the assessment by the computers, but Kramnik had only 81 seconds for his last five moves while Anand had 31.08 minutes for his last five moves.

It was in the similar state that he played fast in Dortmund and lost. Here, Anand proposed a draw and Kramnik accepted.

About not continuing the game, Anand said, ``I did not want to push my luck, after Qg4 he has plenty of counterplay.'' He said black was better after 33...Ng5 34.Rf5 Qxe4 but did not know much better for him.

The hero of the day was Shirov. He scored over Loek van Wely and has been scoring over him at will and at regular intervals. The latest was in 28 moves with the white pieces in a French defence. Experience with this line from Teheran and earlier with both sides left him comfortable in the opening.

Shirov's 10th move looked erratic and was played by three amateurs according to Shirov's trainer, Rychagov of Estonia. It stirred up complications and van Wely sacrificed a knight just like Shirov did in game four against Anand at Teheran.

The pairing for Sunday's round seven: Timman- Fedorov, van Wely- Piket, Adams-Shirov, Tiviakov-Leko, Kasparov- Topalov, Anand- Morozevich, Ivanchuk-Kramnik.

The moves:

GM V. Kramnik-GM V. Anand, round six, Nimzo-Indian defence, E55: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 dxc4 8.Bxc4 Nbd7 9.a3 cxd4 10.axb4 dxc3 11.bxc3 Qc7 12.Qb3 Nb6 13.Be2 e5 14.Ra5 Be6 15.Qc2 Nbd7 16.c4 b6 17.Ra6 Rfc8 18.Nd2 Nb8 19.Ra3 a5 20.Bb2 Nc6 21.b5 Ne7 22.f4 Nd7 23.Nf3 Bf5 24.Qc3 Ng6 25.Ng5 Nc5 26.Bf3 Ra7 27.e4 Bd7 28.fxe5 Be6 29.Bh5 h6 30.Nxe6 Nxe6 31. Qg3 Qc5+ 32.Kh1 Qxc4 33.Raf3 Qxb5 34.Bxg6 fxg6 35.Qxg6 Qe8 Draw. Time: 1.29.52/1.58.39.

Harikrishna holds Gulko

Joint leader IM Pentyala Harikrishna held super Grandmaster Boris Gulko of the United States to a draw in the fourth round of the Grandmaster Group B tournament in the 63rd Corus chess tournament here on Saturday.

The results (fourth round): Van der Weide (Ned) 2 drew with T. Radjabov (Aze) 1.5; Visser (Ned) 2 lost to De Vreugt (Ned) 2; M. Gurevich (Bel) 2 playing F. Nijboer (Ned) 2.5; B. Gulko (US) 3 drew with P. Harikrishna (Ind) 3; Hoeksema (Ned) 0 lost to T. Luther (Ger) 2.5; M. Bosboom (Ned) 1.5 playing Vink (Ned) 0.

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