Anand beats Kramnik to take sole lead

From our chess correspondent

Nice (France), Mar 23 (PTI) World champion Viswanathan Anand crushed Vladimir Kramnik in the blindfold section and romped home with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the crucial eighth round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament, here today.

Anand won the blindfold game and surged ahead in this section to share the second spot in this section.

With the rapid game ending in a draw the Indian ace is now in sole lead on 10.5 points.

Levon Aronian of Armenia defeated Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in the blindfold game and played out a draw in the rapid to win by a similar margin like Anand and so did Magnus Carlsen of Norway in his match against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

Both Carlsen and Aronain remained on Anand's heels, half point behind, and it might well be a race between these three for the title in the last three rounds.

Kramnik slipped to fourth following the loss with 9.5 points. The fifth place is held by Peter Leko of Hungary on 8.5 points while American Gata Kamsky, Topalov and Alexander Morozevich of Russia are locked on 7.5 points apiece.

Ukrainians Vassily Ivanchuk and Sergey Karjakin and Radjabov share the ninth spot on 6.5 points while Wang Yue of China is now in the cellar with 5.5. PTI

Viswanathan Anand shocked by Carlsen, slumps to joint fourth

Linares (Spain), Feb 26 (PTI) World champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocked defeat against Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen in the sixth round to slump to joint fourth of Magistral Ciudad de Linares chess tournament here.
With his second loss in the first six rounds, Anand has now three points out of a possible six and will have to do a lot of catching up in the remaining eight rounds of the Super Grandmasters tournament.

Anand now shares joint fourth spot with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine while Alexander Grischuk of Russia shot into sole lead on 4.5 points after shocking Levon Aronian of Armenia in another sensational result.

Aronian and Carlsen share the second spot on 3.5 points each while Lenier Dominguez of Cuba stands sole sixth on 2.5 points, a half point clear of Wang Yue of China and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

Carlsen has been tipped by many experts as the future world champion not without reasons. The Norwegian showed immaculate technique to beat Anand for the first time ever in a Classical game.

Anand, who rallied from a hopeless position to score a victory against Ivanchuk in the previous round, had also lost to Aronian in the second round.

Clearly the world champion was not at his best form and Carlsen took full advantage of that in the game which lasted 77 moves. PTI

Viswanathan Anand meets Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk's in 5th round

Linares (Spain) (PTI): Rejuvenated after a day's rest, world champion Viswanathan Anand will hope to crash through Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk's defence in the fifth round of the Magistral Ciudad De Leon Chess tournament here.

Trailing joint leaders Levon Aronian of Armenia and Alexander Grischuk of Russia by just half a point following his two victories, one loss and a draw, the Indian ace will hope to bridge the gap in the first half of the 14-round tournament when he sits behind black pieces against Ivanchuk.

Ivanchuk, who has drawn all his games so far, is joined by Magnus Carlsen at the fourth place in the eight-players double round robin tournament with two points each.

Debutant Lenier Dominguez of Cuba stands sole sixth on 1.5 points while Teiumour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Wang Yue of China are at the bottom with just one point each.

For Anand, this has been an excellent event barring the disaster he suffered at the hands of Aronian in round two. The Indian was apparently having a huge advantage when the disaster occurred in the form of an optical blunder resulting in his lone loss in the tournament so far.