Anand faces uphill task at Dortmund

Vishwanathan Anand faces an uphill task as he attempts to stage a comeback in the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess tournament after Tuesday's rest day.

Anand has just two points from the first five rounds and languishes in the joint fourth spot, 1.5 points behind leader Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

The event has hardly seen the best of Anand so far and the World champion does not look in good form. The rest day will probably give him the much-needed composure to make a characteristic comeback.

Right from the very first round, Anand has looked a pale shadow of his brilliant self, recently exemplified in the manner in which he demolished Kramnik at the Mainz Classic.

He drew with Alexander Morozevich of Russia in the opening game after enjoying a slightly better position and has struggled to find his rhythm in the later rounds.

After playing another draw in the second round with Michael Adams of England, Anand saw new depths when he went down to Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the third round for his first loss this year in the classical variation.

It was Anand's second loss to the Bulgarian after going down to him in the Melody Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament and again in a strong novelty that the champion has obviously missed during his home analysis.

Kramnik, with 3.5 points, is sitting pretty with his excellent results. A victory over Topalov in the first round, demolition of Morozevich in the fourth and he looks up, up and away from Anand's reach with five more rounds remaining in the tournament.

Barring Anand there is no one in the fray who could have had a go at Kramnik and given his draw with white pieces, the return game will not probably spark any fireworks either.

Kramnik referred to as 'the king of Durtmund' will play three whites in his last five games.

Half a point behind Kramnik is Topalov and Peter Leko of Hungary. Of the two, Topalov has been playing for the kill. His loss to Kramnik in the opening round was just another indication of this fact with a momentary loss of vigil from a roughly level position leading to the fall.

Thereafter, Topalov scored two victories and shared the lead after the third round but subsequent draws pulled him down the ladder.

Leko has been watchful. After beating Adams in the first round, four successive draws against the rest have just been routine. There has not been much fighting with either colour and it looks unlikely that he can pose a challenge to Kramnik.

Morozevich has been creative but found his rhythm only on Monday, when Adams found his moves tough to tackle. Still, the first victory in the tournament is likely to boost the morale of this entrprising and uncompromising Russian.

Adams, like Anand, will have to look for a reversal of form in the remaining rounds. The usually calm Englishman is a man of few words and would like his moves to do the talking, having lost two and drawing the rest to be at the bottom.