Viswanathan Anand was in full flow as he outplayed Germany's Arkadij Naiditch for his first win at the Sparkassen Super Grandmasters Chess tournament in Dortmund.
World No. 1 Anand, is now in tied second place, half a point behind leader, Vladimir Kramnik, who is sole leader with three points.
Two of the four games produced results in fourth round as opposed to series of draws in third round.
NIIT-sponsored Anand was up against the Ruy Lopez Moeller defence from Naiditsch, who has produced some good results recently. Anand needing to score some points as the tournament this year is just a single round-robin opted for some risky play in the early middlegame.
That was when and Naiditsch could perhaps have seized the initiative. But he failed to do so and even when Anand reached an ending with an extra pawn, Naiditsch had his pieces active and could possibly have drawn. But the wily Anand outplayed him and eked out a good win.
Anand who started the day half a point behind Kramnik stayed there as the latter also scored a good win over young Magnus Carlsen in a convincing manner from a Catalan. It was Kramnik's second victory in four games.
In other games, Evegeny Alekseev drew against Peter Leko, and Boris Gelfand split points with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
World champion Kramnik crushed Carlsen, whose opening preparation went seriously wrong. His 16th move appeared to be a novelty, but after Kramnik's strong reply Black was unable to prevent White's cavalry establishing itself on the c6 square, after which White had a stifling grip on the position. Kramnik soon picked off the b5-pawn and the rest was silence.
In the fifth round, Anand has black pieces with Mamedyarov. In other games, Carlsen meets Gelfand, Leko has white against Kramnik and Naiditsch has white against Alekseev.
Results of Round 4: Kramnik beat Carlsen; Alekseev drew with Leko; Anand drew with Naiditsch; Gelfand drew with Mamedyarov
Round 4 Standings: 1. Kramnik 3.0; 2. Alekseev and Anand 2.5; 4. Leko and Mamedyarov 2.0; 6. Gelfand and Carlsen 1.5; 8. Naiditsch 1.0
