Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by English Grandmaster Michael Adams in the seventh round of Corus International chess tournament on Saturday.
After a shocking loss against Gata Kamsky of United States in the previous round, the 23-move draw against Adams did not prove enough for Anand to retain joint lead in this category-19 event and the Indian ace was pushed to second spot after World Champion Veselin Topalov made mincemeat of local hopeful Ivan Sokolov.
With his fourth victory in the 14-players all-play-all tournament, Topalov (5 points) took a slender half point lead over Anand and world's youngest ever Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine who was very impressive in scoring over junior world champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in this round.
The fourth spot is jointly shared by Adams, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine who all are on 4 points.
Anand could do little against Adams who was well armed in the Ruy Lopez Anti Marshall. The variation chosen by Adams was similar to the one that Alexei Shirov opted for against Anand a few years back during the Mainz chess Classics.
From what transpired on the board, it was evident that Adams' had done good home work.
He realized soon in the middle game that his position was not good enough to play for a win and the draw was signed after both players had traded a couple of minor pieces and pawns.
Topalov was back to his awesome winning ways. However, this time, he had to showcase his defensive skills as Sokolov threw everything at him right from the early stages of the middle game.
It started with a Ruy Lopez Arkhengelsk variation wherein Topalov gobbled two sacrificed pieces and demonstrated that black did not have sufficient compensation. Sokolov's effort lasted till the 37th move.
Karjakin played a fine positional game to beat Mamedyarov who was a bit subdued after having drawn all his preceding games in the tournament.
Playing another Ruy Lopez of the day, Mamedyarov was slowly pushed to the wall after trading of queens as Karjakin obtained a commanding position with his knight ruling the roost in the middle of the board.
The game ended in just 33 moves when it was clear that Karjakin will win a pawn and slowly the game too. The Azerbaijani Mamedyarov did not prolong his agony.
In the other decisive game of the day, Peter Leko finally found his first victory in the tournament at the expense of Anand-beater Kamsky.
Interestingly this was also a Ruy Lopez that clearly signifies the emerging trend amongst the chess elite.
In the 'B' group being organized simultaneously, Koneru Humpy suffered yet another defeat when she was beaten by top seed David Navara of Czech Republic.
Norwegian teenage sensation Magnus Carlsen continued with his winning ways in this section and grounded Giovanni Vescovi of Brazil in a "Classic effort".
Comments
0 comment