Anand moves into sole lead at Corus

Vishwanathan Anand scored a effortless win over Zhang Zhongto to not only register his first win with black pieces in the 66th edition of the Corus Grandmasters Chess tournament, but also move into sole lead at the end of the seventh round, just past the half way mark in the 13-round Category 19 tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.

The defending champion, Anand, now has five points. In the bunch of four, who shared lead after six rounds, Vladimir Kramnik and Michael Adams only managed draws, while Veselin Topalov lost to Peter Svidler and slipped down the ranks.

Svidler beat Topalov in a 46-move Sicilian Najdorf game, while Alexey Shirov made up for his loss to Anand by beating Jan Timman in a long 100-move French defence game.

Akopian drew with Adams in a short 20-move Reti and Loek Van Wely was engaged in a 28-move truce with Peter Leko in a Queen's Indian. Viorel Bologan beat Ivan Sokolov in 55 moves from a Slav Defence and Bareev's drawn game with Kramnik in Nimzo Indian lasted 35 moves.

Zhang facing Asia's strongest and the World No. 3, Anand, was never in the fight. The Zhang-Anand was a Sicilian and the Chinese player, often given to playing unfamiliar styles, did just that. A patient Anand, who obviously knew enough about Zhang's style waited. The players simply sparred for the first 22 moves.

Anand decided not to castle and Zhang opened up the game after castling on the kingside. But that  backfired and soon Anand's rooks looked very difficult to handle. Zhang then made some small errors and in next to no time was down. He had to give up his rook for a knight.

With Anand's rook looking menacing on the sixth rank and heavy material loss imminent, the Chinese player resigned on the 40th move.

In the next round, Anand meets Bareev and the Indian has white pieces and a win in this round could further strengthen his position and help him retain his title.

Pairings for Round 8: Topalov v Shirov, Anand v Bareev, Adams v Kramnik, Leko v Bologan, Akopian v Van Wely, Sokolov v Svidler, Timman v Zhang

Results of round 7: Svidler beat Topalov, Akopian drew with Adams, Van Wely drew with Leko, Shirov beat Timman, Bologan beat Sokolov, Bareev drew with Kramnik, Zhang  lost to Anand.

Standings after round 7: 1. Anand 5.0; 2. Kramnik and Adams 4.5 each; 4.Leko, Topalov and Svidler 4.0 each; 7. Akopian,  and Van Wely 3.5 each; 9. Shirov, Bologan, Bareev,  3.0 each; 12. Sokolov and Timman; 14. Zhang 2.0.

Zhang  v Anand
Wijk Aan Zee, Round 7

1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d3 b5 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O Nf6 7. Ng5 h6 8. Nh3 Nc6 9. f4 Be7 10. Be3 h5 11. Nf2 d5 12. e5 Nd7 13. c4 bxc4 14. dxc4 Nb6 15. Na3 Rb8 16. Nd3 d4 17. Bd2 g6 18. b3 Kf8 19. Nc2 Nd7 20. Qe2 Qc7 21. h3 Nd8 22. Nce1 Bxg2 23. Nxg2 Ke8 24. g4 hxg4 25. hxg4 Qc6 26. Rf3 Qa6 27. Qd1 Nc6 28. Qc2 Kd8 29. Re1 Kc7 30. f5 gxf5 31. gxf5 Rbg8 32. fxe6 fxe6 33. Rf7 Kc8 34. Bf4 Bf8 35. Qf2 Nd8 36. Rxd7 Kxd7 37. b4 Ke8 38. bxc5 Rh3 39. Qc2 Qc6 40. Re2 Bxc5 0-1 (Black wins)