Anand draws again, Kasparov surges into lead

FIDE world champion Vishwanathan Anand continued his string of draws at the Corus Chess Supertournament, this time against Peter Leko.

Anand played the opening better than his rival and, on the 19th and 20th moves, played aggressively looking for an opening. Leko found the right counter on his own 20th move, giving away a pawn but ensuring that he had a way out of the hole Anand was digging for him. Anand had the advantage till around the 29th move, but after his own 29th, Leko managed to reach a position where his lack of development was compensated for by the fact that Anand's knight was in a bit of a hole. The Indian ace, seeing the position getting into a complicated, and potentially risky, situation, quickly transposed into an equal endgame, the two players agreeing to split points after 34 moves.

Anand, thus far, has draws against Michael Adams, Garry Kasparov, Fedorov, Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Morozevich, Topalov and Leko, and a lone win against Tiviakov.

With four rounds to go, Anand is now in a position from where he has to win all four games to even have a chance to share a spot at the top of the table. In the coming rounds, he faces Alexei Shirov, his opponent in the FIDE finals in December, followed by Jeroen Piket, Jan Timman and Loek Van Wely.

Theoretically, Anand has a good chance, since he has by now put the tough opposition (Kasparov, Kramnik, Adams et al) behind him. However, through this tournament, it is noticeable that Anand has been looking to rapidly simply positions and play out the draw, rather than risk complications and a possible defeat -- a mindset he will need to shake if he wants to make a push for top honours from here on in.

Meanwhile, Garry Kasparov shot into the lead with a superb win over Alexei Shirov. Shirov, FIDE finalist, was in fact to blame for his defeat -- as early as the 13th move, Shirov playing black had the opportunity to force a draw with opposite coloured bishops on the board, but opted instead for a complicated middlegame. Kasparov, who had prepared a line in the Petroff for his game against Kramnik, used it today instead, and surged into a clearly superior position by the 15th move. He then played the middlegame with vigour and skill, forcing Shirov, who now has a 0-10 record against Kasparov in classical chess, to resign on the 45th move.

In other action, Vassily Ivanchuk and Vesselin Topalov fought their way to a lacklustre 36 move draw, with Ivanchuk missing out on several opportunities to sharpen the position. Topalov, faced by this passivity, defended accurately to force the draw. Similarly, Michael Adams and Jan Timman eschewed complications and preferred to split points, after testing each other out in the middlegame, before shaking hands on move 44.

The surprise of the day, though, came in the Kramnik-Morozevich game -- with BrainGames champion Kramnik suffering his first defeat after having his win over Kasparov late last year.

Kramnik, playing white, faced Alexander Morozevich who plays with a lot of flair. Typically, Morozevich was the one to first stir the pot, with an interesting pawn sacrifice leading to a rare variation. Kramnik, true to his nature, avoided the looming complications and restored parity on the board, thanks largely to Morozevich's own inaccurate follow-up. However, he then decided to try for full points, over-reached himself, and with Morozevich quickly recovering, Kramnik found himself pushed to the wall by a neat sacrifice by his opponent.

The leaderboard at the end of nine rounds reads:

1) Garry Kasparov -- 6.5 points

2. Alexei Shirov -- 6.5 points

3-4) Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich -- 5.5

5-7) Michael Adams, Vishy Anand, Vassili Ivanchuk -- 5 points

8-10) Peter Leko, Jan Timman, Loek Van Wely -- 4 points

11-12) Alexei Fedorov, Veselin Topalov -- 3.5

13) Jeroen Piket -- 3 points

14) Sergei Tiviakov -- 2 points

Wednesday is a rest day. The tournament resumes on Thursday.