NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Anand stays ahead in blitz play

Indian grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand continued to lead the rapid play standings by a full point with a draw against Dutchman Jeroen Piket in the eighth Amber blindfold and rapidplay chess tournament in Monte Carlo.

In the 12-player tournament, which comes to an end tomorrow, Anand trails Vladimir Kramnik, a joint winner here last year, as also Veselin Topalov and Alexi Shirov.

Anand drew his blindfold game also, against Piket, for a 1-1 result. In rapidplay, though Piket had the advantage of white, in a Bogo Indian game, Anand nullified a knight attack by his opponent, defending well and equalising early for a 25-move draw.

In blindfold, Anand took the attacking role with white, in a Spanish Opening, the game ending in a 28-move draw.

Anand has 6.5 points out of nine in rapidplay, leaving him a clear point ahead of Kramnik. In the blindfold section, Kramnik and Shirov share the lead with seven out of a possible nine.

Kramnik, who has won most of his rounds by a 1.5-0.5 margin, allowed a rare 1-1 result against Predrage Nikolic of Bosnia-Herzogovina. Kramnik drew both games, and that allowed Bulgarian Veselin Topalov to inch a little closer to the leader.

Topalov scored a win over Vassily Ivanchuk in the blindfold section, and now has 11.5 points as compared to Kramnik's 12.5 points. Alexi Shirov, who lost the rapid game but won the blindfold against Karpov, is third with 11 points and Anand is fourth at 10 points.

Joel Lautier slipped to fifth spot with 9.5 points as Ljubojevic with black defeated him in rapid play and then quickly drew the blindfold game for a good result.

There are two more rounds to go in the 11-round tournament that ends tomorrow, with a prize purse of $137,250 to play for.

Prizes will be awarded in all three categories -- rapid, blindfold and overall.