Anand registers impressive draw

By Arvind Aaron

MONTE CARLO, MARCH 20. World champion Viswanathan Anand made big impression in his drawn fourth round game against European Club Championship team-mate Boris Gelfand of Israel, as he closed the gap on the leader after the rapid session of the fourth round of the 10th Amber chess tournament here on Tuesday.

Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, who shocked Brain Games World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia on Monday night, was jolted by Dutchman Jeroen Piket on Tuesday afternoon. Nevertheless, Topalov leads with five points from seven games. Three players - Anand, Kramnik and Leko are half a point behind. Seven rounds and the blindfold session of the fourth round remain to be played in this $ 193,250 Super tournament.

Tuesday's rapid play was dominated by two brilliant draws. One by Anand with the black pieces when he sacrificed a knight in a Catalan opening and went for a king hunt. During that moment, giant killer Piket whispered, ``Anand is a genius or is losing today.''

Gelfand accepted the knight and defended to make an accurate draw warding off black's queen and bishop battery from spelling disaster for the white side. ``I think play was perfect,'' said Anand after analysing the game in the pressroom.

The second beauty was Ivanchuk's brilliant stalemate draw against Karpov. Down with a rook against two bishops of Karpov, Ivanchuk with the white pieces played for the last chance which the veteran star missed to allow stalemate in 56 moves.

Piket relied on his Petroff's Defence to defeat Topalov in 42 moves with the black pieces. Black came good after the opening which was played by Kasparov's trainer Yuri Dokhoian. Topalov, who was an exchange up, sacrificed a bishop to survive but could only postpone defeat by a few moves.

In another big result between hostile players, Shirov went down to Kramnik in a sharp ending that emerged from a Berlin defence that the latter is practising since the London match victory over Kasparov. Shirov went for a bishop which allowed black to race down his pawn to the queening square with a mate threat.

Veteran Ljubojevic held Leko to a draw and Almasi did the same against the highly rated Dutch player Van Wely.

Monday's blindfold games

The first session of blindfold was less interesting except for Ljubo's lucky ride into lead. Ivanchuk, in trying to retain an extra pawn, walked into a pin and lost his rook on move 32. Ljubojevic who was in trouble in the game said, ``there was compensation.''

Unlike on Sunday, Anand won his rapid game and played the blindfold game securely to draw Leko in 33 moves and return with a content 1.5-0.5 victory for the day. He played the French defence and there was nothing going on as Leko accepted the draw in a minor piece ending.

Speaking about the earlier rapid game, Anand said Leko mixed up two different ideas in the Russian variation of the Grunfeld and ran into trouble. ``I should have finished the game in 30 moves,'' said a self critical Anand about being inefficient in his conversion of the advantage.

Gelfand played safely with white and exchanged his bishop for a knight on move 29 to draw Karpov.

lThe results:

Fourth round (rapid): Z. Almasi drew with L. Van Wely, V. Topalov lost to J. Piket, A. Shirov lost to V. Kramnik, B. Gelfand drew with V. Anand, V. Ivanchuk drew with A. Karpov, L. Ljubojevic drew with P. Leko.

Third round (rapid): Blindfold: Ljubojevic bt Ivanchuk, Gelfand drew with Karpov, Leko drew with Anand, Almasi bt Shirov, Topalov bt Kramnik, Piket drew with Van Wely.

The standings (mid-way through round four): 1. V. Topalov (Bul) 5/7; 2-4 V. Anand, V. Kramnik, P. Leko 4.5 each; 5. L. Ljubojevic (Yug) 4; 6-7 J. Piket (Ned), A. Shirov (ESP) 3.5 each; 8. B. Gelfand (Isr) 3; 9-11. Almasi (Hun), V. Ivanchuk (Ukr), A. Karpov (Rus) 2.5 each; 12. L. Van Wely (Ned) 2.

The moves: GM P. Leko-GM V. Anand, round three, blindfold, French defence, C11: 1. e4 e6, 2. d4 d5, 3. Nc3 Nf6, 4. Bg5 dxe4, 5. Nxe4 Nbd7, 6. Nf3 h6, 7. Bh4 Be7, 8. Nxf6+ Bxf6, 9. Bxf6 Nxf6, 10. Bd3 0-0, 11. Qe2 c5, 12. 0-0-0 cxd4, 13. Qe5 Bd7, 14. Nxd4 Rc8, 15. f3 Qc7, 16. Rhe1 Qxe5, 17. Rxe5 Rfd8, 18. Bf1 Kf8, 19. c4 Nd5, 20. Nc2 Ne7, 21. b3 g5, 22. Re2 Bc6, 23. Nd4 Be8, 24. Red2 Nc6, 25. Nb5 Rxd2, 26. Rxd2 Ke7, 27. Nd6 Rc7, 28. Nxe8 Kxe8, 29. Kb2 Rd7, 30. Rxd7 Kxd7, 31. Kc3 b6, 32. b4 Kd6, 33. a3. Draw.

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