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Russia reduces deficit

By Arvind Aaron

Chennai Sept. 9. Riding on the back of Alexander Morozevich's two brilliant victories, favourites Russia won rounds three and four by identical 5.5-4.5 scores to reduce the deficit in the `New Match of the Century' against the Rest of the World at the Kremlin Palace in Moscow on Monday.

Rest of the World continues to lead the table, after four rounds, 20.5-19.5.

Sixty percent of the series is still to come and more importantly the Russians have the trend behind them with some key players like Garry Kasparov back to winning ways.

Former world champion, Viswanathan Anand made two draws in contrasting styles. In the first he won a pawn and kept trying for a win before sharing the point with another former world champion Alexander Khalifman.

In the second, Anand lost a pawn with careless play and sat and defended a pawn down ending with great determination against yet another former world champion, Anatoly Karpov. The draw came after a marathon 115 moves.

Some of the Rest of the World team players also had an excellent session today. Reigning World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine scored two convincing victories but his team did not match the resilience of the Russians.

Ponomariov won a worthy round four game with the black pieces when he spotted a weak pawn of Khalifman to prey upon and win the minor piece ending with clinical precision in 59 moves.

The fifth round also saw five decisive games with the Russians edging 3-2 and leaving the other five to be drawn. The second win for the World team came from Leko, who played a powerful opening and followed it up with excellent technique to win a rook and pawn against after 73 moves against Motylev.

The results (players are from Russia unless stated):

Round Three: Rest of the World lost to Russia 4.5-5.5 (Viswanathan Anand (Ind) drew Alexander Khalifman, Alexei Dreev drew Peter Leko (Hun), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) bt. Vadim Zviaginsev, Alexander Motylev drew Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr), Boris Gelfand (Isr) drew Garry Kasparov, Evgeny Bareev bt. Nigel Short (Eng), Alexei Shirov (ESP) bt. Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich bt. Vladimir Akopian (Arm), Ilya Smirin (Isr) drew Alexander Grischuk, Teimour Radjabov (Aze) lost to Peter Svidler).

Round four: Rest of the World lost to Russia 4.5-5.5 (Anatoly Karpov drew Viswanathan Anand (Ind), Peter Leko (Hun) bt. Alexander Motylev, Alexander Khalifman lost to Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew Alexei Dreev, Vladimir Kramnik drew Boris Gelfand (Isr), Nigel Short (Eng) lost to Alexander Morozevich, Garry Kasparov bt. Alexei Shirov (ESP), Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) drew Evgeny Bareev, Peter Svidler drew Ilya Smirin (Isr), Alexander Grischuk bt. Teimour Radjabov (Aze)).

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