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Anand scores in rapid chess

Vishwanathan Anand is booming back into the kind of form he is known for in rapid chess. He outplayed Predrag Nikolic in the eighth round of the Amber Chess Tournament on Friday to stay in the reckoning for honours. However, in the blindfold event where he continues to lead, the Bosnian player helped him to a quick draw.

Anand's 1-5-0.5 victory placed him in third position overall, as Alexi Shirov and Veselin Topalov occupied the first two slots. Shirov logged his eighth successive victory by the margin of 1.5-0.5, this time over Jeroen Piket, while Topalov moved from joint second with Anand to sole second, with an excellent 2-0 triumph over former World champion Anatoly Karpov in the eighth round.

Anand, who has always had a good result in rapid against Nikolic maintained the trend. With black pieces he went in for the Slav defence and with Nikolic not pressing, black (Anand) managed neutrality soon. Anand soon won a pawn and converted that into a good win for one more rapid win, which gives his score in rapid section also a lot of respectability. He now has 4.5 points out of eight in rapid and is placed joint fourth.

Anand opened with queen pawn opening in the blindfold and facing the queen's Indian defence, the Indian opted for the Petrosyan variation. But Nikolic, black, managed to neutralise the advantage of white and then accepted the draw when offered by Anand.

Anand still leads the blindfold section with six points out of eight and is half a point ahead of second placed trio of Shriov, Topalov and Kramnik.

Against leader Shirov, Piket seemed to be better for most part of the game. He pressed Shirov quite well and he was better all the time, but was unable to convert it into a win. The game was drawn. In blindfold Shirov won convincingly in a sharp line of the open Ruy Lopez.

Toplov, playing white in the rapid, got an advantage after the opening. In addition Karpov had time problems as he had just three minutes left after 21 moves, while Topalov had 23 minutes. Karpov still defended very well and prolonged the game, but in the king and knight's endgame, Topalov got an edge and won.

In the blindfold game Topalov showed good opening preparation. He won a pawn and later Karpov blundered a rook and lost.

Kramnik, with twin victories over Ljubojevic, jumped in the standings. After a poor start, the Russian is fourth in overall the standings and only half a point behind India's Anand.

The Yugoslavian GM was better in the rapid game but allowed Kramnik to get back into the game and the Russian made good use to turn tables and win. In blindfold, Ljubojevic lost on time, but he was in inferior position.

Ivanchuk beat Llautier in the rapid but drew in the blindfold game. Loek Van Wely and Boris Gelfand drew both games.

Results:

Rapid play: Topalov beat Karpov; Kramnik beat Ljubojevic; Ivanchuk beat Lautier; Gelfand drew with Van Wely; Piket drew with Shirov; Nikolic lost to Anand.

Blindfold: Shirov beat Piket; Anand drew with Nikolic; Karpov lost to Topalov; Van Wely drew with Gelfand; Lautier drew with Ivanchuk; Ljubojevic lost to Kramnik.

Rapid play standings: 1. Shirov 6.5; 2.Ivanchuk 6.0; 3. Topalov 5.5; 4. Gelfand, Anand, Kramnik 4.5; 7 Van Wely, Karpov 4.0; 3. Piket, Nikolic 2.5; 11. Lautier 2.0; 12 Jubojevic 1.5.

Blindfold standings: 1. Anand 6.0; 2 Topalov, Shirov, Kramnik 5.5; 5. Karpov 4.5; 6. Piket, Gelfand 4.0; 8. Ivanchuk 3.0; 9. Nikolic, Ljubojevic, Lautier, Van Wely 2.5.

Overall standings: 1. Shirov 12; 2. Topalov 11.0; 3. Anand 10.5; 4. Kramnik 10; 5. Ivanchuk 9.0; 6. Gelfand, Karpov 8.5; Piket, Van Wely 6.5; 10. Nikolic 5.0; 11. Lautier 4.5; 12. Ljubojevic 4.0

UNI