Anand beats Ivanchuk

World champion Vishwanathan Anand remained in the lead with a 1.5-0.5 verdict over Vassily Ivanchuk of The Ukraine, at the end of fifth round of the 10th Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament, being played in Monte Carlo, on Friday.

Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and GM Veselin Topalov of Hungary share the lead along with the Indian ace, with 7 points.

For Anand it was one of those routine wins. Ivanchuk was no match for the Indian.

With white pieces, the top seed was at home and never bothered to look at the several tactical variation of the Ruy Lopez that could have given him a spectacular win but yet got a point in the rapid game that he wanted in the manner that suited him.

The logic was to improve the position and push the opponent into rough water. The Indian timely secrificed king pawn on the 33rd move invading oppsition territory with his rooks to create a passed pawn on rook file and won the game after 43 moves.

In the Blindfold game the Indian wizard quickly signed the peace treaty against Ivanchuk after 23 moves. Defending the black side of queens, Anand did not take chances after emerging to an equal middle game after surviving the opening pressure.

Veselin Topaolov of Hungry was lucky to score over Luek Van Wely of The Netherlands in the blindfold game. Wely, playing black, adopted his favorite French defence and obtained a commendable position in the end game after making smart exchanges in the middle game but some how mishandled the position and lost the game tragically.

Topalov drew the rapid encounter in queens gambit diclined game. It was an interesting battle where both the players had their chances but both players agreed for a draw after the game reached a in equal rook pawn ending.

GM Kramnik of Russia scored a lucky win over Zoltan Almasi 1.5-0.5 to share the lead. In a rapid game, the 25-year-old Russian achieved a superior position and won a pawn with middle game combination in Nimzo Indian opening but this time his technique failed the opposite coloured bishops and guaranteed Almasi the draw.

The result was a big surprise to spectators.

In the blindfold game Almasi showed immense character and superior positional under standing to achive advantageous position. However, he missed the winning continuation and lost the game tamely.

Former World champion Karpov of Russia scored his first win of the tournament against Ljubojevic in rapid game. Ljubojevic faced problems right from the opening.

Karpov delayed his long castle and launched a kingside offensive. Ljubojevic could not do much former won an exchange. The Yugoslav resigned facing an eventual loss of full rook.

Debutant Peter Leko produced a surprising result of the day by loosing to Boris Gelfand 0.5-1.5.

Defending champion Alexi Shirov of Spain drew his game against Piket 1-1.

Points position:

1-3 - Anand, Kramnik, Topalov 7
4 - Leko 6
5 - Piket 5.5
6-9 - Gelfand, Karpov, Shirov, Ljebojevic 4.5
10-11 - Almasi, Ivanchuk 3.5
12 - Van Wely 3

UNI