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Topalov stays alive with win

DORTMUND JULY 21. With his back to the wall and needing a win with the black pieces, Bulgarian Veselin Topalov succeeded in beating Peter Leko of Hungary in the third game of the final of the Candidates' Tournament on Saturday.

Leko now leads the four-game match 2-1, and only needs a draw in the final game on Sunday to win the right to play Einstein World champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia next year.

Topalov chose the Paulsen Variation of the Sicilian Defence, against which Leko established the Maroczy Bind with pawns on c4 and e4. This guarantees White a space advantage and it is sometimes difficult but Black's position is very resilient and has no weaknesses. Rather than sit passively on a position in which he only needed a draw, Leko advanced in the centre on move 19 and obtained a passed c-pawn.

``White is much better and it will be very hard for Black to play for a win from this position,'' commented German international master Stefan Loeffler.

In further exchanges, White gave up his passed c-pawn but in their place obtained connected outside a- and b-pawns. Black had a five-on-four kingside pawn majority with doubled e-pawns.

Still, Black's pieces were well-placed and his king on b6 impeded the progress of the enemy passed pawns. White also had problems with his king position which were exacerbated when a black knight landed on d3.

Returning to the position on move 43, Loeffler said, ``Leko must have gone terribly astray somewhere.''

By this time, Black seemed to have the edge. He definitely did after Leko's inaccurate 48th move, which lost a pawn. A few moves later, Topalov won Leko's b-pawn in exchange for his own e-pawn. Leko soon found himself in an endgame facing three connected passed pawns on the kingside, for which his own passed a- and f-pawns were no match. He resigned on his 62nd move.

The winner of the match will face Kramnik, one of two current world champions, in a match for his title next spring, probably running from early April to mid-May.

The moves:

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.0-0 d6 8.c4 b6 9.Nc3 Bf6 10.Qc2 Ne7 11.Be3 Qc7 12.Rfd1 Nd7 13.Qd2 Bb7 14.Be2 Be5 15.Bd4 Rd8 16.Rac1 Bxd4 17.Qxd4 Nf6 18.Na4 Nc8 19.e5 dxe5 20.Qxd8+ Qxd8 21.Rxd8+ Kxd8 22.c5 b5 23.c6 Ba8 24.Nac5 Kc7 25.Nxa6+ Kb6 26.Bxb5 Nd6 27.Be2 Bxc6 28.Nb4 Bd5 29.Nd2 Nf5 30.Nc4+ Bxc4 31.Rxc4 Nd4 32.Bf1 Rd8 33.Nd3 Nc6 34.a4 e4 35.Nc5 Na5 36.Rb4+ Kxc5 37.Rb5+ Kc6 38.Rxa5 Nd5 39.Rb5 Nf4 40.Rb4 f5 41.Rc4+ Kb7 42.g3 Nd3 43.a5 g5 44.Be2 Rd5 45.b4 Ne5 46.a6+ Kb8 47.Rc2 g4 48.Rc5 Nf3+ 49.Kf1 Nxh2+ 50.Ke1 Nf3+ 51.Bxf3 exf3 52.Rc6 Re5+ 53.Kd1 h5 54.b5 Rxb5 55.Rxe6 Rb2 56.Ke1 Rb1+ 57.Kd2 Rf1 58.Re5 f4 59.gxf4 Rxf2+ 60.Ke3 Re2+ 61.Kd3 Ra2 White resigns.

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