Anand held by Adams; Harikrishna, Negi win

Still searching for the elusive victory, World champion Viswanathan Anand played his third draw on the trot while P Harikrishna and Parimarjan Negi scored victories in the fourth round of the Corus International Chess tournament in Wijk Ann Zee, the Netherlands, on Wednesday.

Anand signed peace with English Grandmaster Michael Adams in a premier Group A clash while Harikrishna coasted to victory over Wouter Spoelman of Holland to join the Group B leaders.

GM Negi excelled for the second day running and defeated Chinese GM Li Shilong in a one-sided affair in Group C.

After a first round loss at the hands of Radjabov, Anand's hunt for an elusive victory in his favourite hunting ground continued as Adams was resolute in his defensive bid as black and did not give many chances to the wily Indian.

Adams was seen pressing for a victory in the end. It was a queen pawn opening by Anand as white, which lasted 56 moves before the peace was signed.

Ahead of the first rest day of the category-16 round-robin event, Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Levon Aronian of Armenia remained in joint following a draw between themselves in a game of fluctuating fortunes.

Capitalising on an opening error, Aronian got a nearly winning position in the middle game as black but underestimated white's counter play and landed in a lost position immediately.

Carlsen returned the favour in a little later after which the draw was a just result.

With Carlsen and Aronian on three points apiece, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia jumped to joint third spot on 2.5 points in the company of Temour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, Loek van Wely of Holland and Judit Polgar of Hungary.

It was an eventful day in the premier group with three decisive games, Kramnik defeated Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine, Polgar accounted for Boris Gelfand of Israel while Van Wely scored his first win at the expense of former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

Anand continues to share the 10th spot on 1.5 points.

Harikrishna regained joint lead along side Jan Smeets of Holland and Etienne Bacrot of France on 3 points. The other Indian in the fray, Koneru Humpy inched herself up to one point after drawing with English Nigel Short.

Playing the black side of a Queen pawn opening Negi won a pawn with a tactical shot and romped home in quick time and moved to two points out of a possible four.

The leader in this section is Arik braun of Germany, who maintained a clean slate with his fourth victory.

Harikrishna had to work hard to beat Spoelman. Playing the white side of an irregular Queen pawn game Harikrishna stuck to basics for the major part but found Spoelman quite up to the task and the position remained level for a long time.

It was only in the rook and pawns endgame that Harikrishna got a chance and he pounced on it immediately to score his second victory in the event.      

Results after round four:

Group 'A': Loek van Wely (Ned, 2.5) beat Veselin Topalov (Bul, 1); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1) lost to Judit Polgar (Hun, 2.5); Peter Leko (Hun, 2) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 2); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 3); Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 1.5) drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 2); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2.5) beat Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 1); Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 2.5) drew with Shakriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 1.5).

Group 'B': Nigel Short (Eng, 2) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind, 1); Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 1.5) drew with Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 2); Ivan Cheparinov  (Bul, 2.5) beat Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2); Michal Krasenkow  (Pol, 1.5) drew with Jan Smeets (Ned, 3); Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 3) drew with Sergei Movsesian (Svk, 2.5); P. Harikrishna (Ind, 3) beat Wouter Spoelman (Ned, 0); Yifan Hou (Chn, 1.5) drew with Daniel Stellwagen (Ned,2.5).

Group 'C': Irina Krush (Usa, 1) lost to E. Grivas (Gre, 2.5); Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 3.5) drew with Dimitry Reinderman (Ned, 2.5); Pontus Carlsson (Swe, 3) beat D. Ruijgrok (Ned, 0); Arik Braun (Ger, 4) beat Mark van der Werf (Ned, 1.5); John van der Wiel (Ned, 2.5) drew with Zhaoqin Peng (Ned, 1); Shilong Li (Chn, 2) lost to Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 2); Anna Ushenina (Ukr, 0.5) lost to Friso Nijboer (Ned, 2).

The moves: V Anand v/s Michael Adams

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. b3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Be7 7. Bg2 c6 8. Bc3 d5 9. Ne5 Nfd7 10. Nxd7 Nxd7 11. Nd2 O-O 12. O-O f5 13. Bb2 Bd6 14. Qc2  Rc8 15. Nf3 Qe7 16. Rfd1 c5 17. e3 Nf6 18. dxc5 Bxc5 19. Ne5 Bd6 20. Qd2 Rfd8  21. cxd5 Nxd5 22. Rac1 Bc5 23. Bxd5 Rxd5 24. Qc3 Rcd8 25. Rxd5 Rxd5 26. b4 Bd6 27. Nc6 Qd7 28. h4 Bb7 29. Nd4 Be5 30. f4 Bxd4 31. exd4 Qe8 32. Kf2 h6 33. Qa3 a6 34. Rc7 Rd7 35. Rxd7 Qxd7 36. d5 Qxd5 37. Qc3 Qd7 38. Qd4 Qc7 39. Qc3 Qf7 40. a3 b5 41. Qe5 Kh7 42. Qd4 Bd5 43. Bc3 Qg6 44. Qd1 Qf7 45. Qd4 Ba8 46. Qe3 Qb7 47. Bd4 Qh1 48. Ke2 Be4 49. Kd2 Kg6 50. Qe1 Qf3 51. Qe3 Qf1 52. Qe2 Qb1 53. Qe3 Qc2+ 54. Ke1 Qc4 55. Qc3 Qd5 56. Bxg7 Qd3.