The Hindu : The race is yet to hot up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 01, 2002

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Sport - Chess

The race is yet to hot up
By Arvind Aaron

LINARES, FEB. 27. High level of defensive play coupled with an equal extent of missed chances have contributed to the fewer number of decisive games in the ongoing 19th City of Linares chess tournament being played here at Hotel Anibal.

Wednesday was a free day and often players do no like to enter the free day with a defeat in the previous round. Rounds three and four did not produce any decisive game and those conscious about such results should try and switch to the old 14- player single round robin format where every second game was ending decisively. So far, only two decisive games have been registered in the twelve that we have seen.

Viswanathan Anand has had two successive free days and a lot will be expected from him in round five when he faces Vassily Ivanchuk with the white pieces. Ivanchuk has won this tournament thrice and Anand once.

lThe standings after four rounds: 1 M. Adams (Eng) 2/3, 2-3 A. Shirov (ESP), F. Vallejo (ESP) 2/4 each, 4-6 V. Anand (Ind), G. Kasparov (Rus), R. Ponomariov (Ukr) 1.5/3 each, 7 V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1.5/4.

Karpov moves into sole lead

Veteran and former World chess champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia moved into sole lead after five rounds in the NAO Masters Super Category-18 chess tournament at Cannes in France on Tuesday.

Karpov, 50, accounted for 22-year old Peter Leko of Hungary to move to 3.5 points from games. Four rounds remain to be played in this tournament. Top-seed Alexander Morozevich of Russia suffered an unusual fourth defeat to be at the bottom of the 10-player field.

The results (round five): A. Karpov (Rus) 3.5 bt Peter Leko (Hun) 2, V. Topalov (Bul) 3 drew E. Bareev (Rus) 3, Joel Lautier (Fra) 2.5 drew Boris Gelfand (Isr) 3, E. Bacrot (Fra) 2.5 drew L. Fressinet (Fra) 3, A. Morozevich (Rus) 0.5 lost to Igor Nataf (Fra) 2.

The moves: GM Anatoly Karpov-GM Peter Leko, round five, Neo- Grunfeld, D73: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 5.c4 dxc4 6.Na3 c3 7.bxc3 0-0 8.0-0 c5 9.e3 Nc6 10.Qe2 Bf5 11.Rd1 Qb6 12.Nh4 Bg4 13.f3 Nd5 14.Nc4 Qa6 15.Bb2 Nb6 16.Bf1 Qxc4 17.Qxc4 Nxc4 18.Bxc4 Na5 19.Be2 Be6 20.d5 Bd7 21.e4 e6 22.Ng2 exd5 23.exd5 b5 24.Rd2 Rfe8 25.Kf2 Nb7 26.c4 b4 27.Bxg7 Kxg7 28.Rb2 Nd6 29.a3 a5 30.Ne3 Kf6 31.Nf1 Reb8 32.axb4 axb4 33.Rba2 Rxa2 34.Rxa2 Bf5 35.g4 b3 36.Ra6 b2 37.Nd2 Ke7 38.gxf5 b1Q 39.Nxb1 Rxb1 40.f6+ Kd7 41.Rc6 Rb2 42.Rxc5 Nf5 43.Rb5 Rxb5 44.cxb5 Kc7 45.Bd3 Nd6 46.Ke3 Ne8 47.Kd4 Nxf6 48.Bc4 Nd7 49.d6+ Kxd6 50.Bxf7 1-0.

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