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Another draw for Anand

Another round and another draw was Vishwanathan Anand's story in the seventh round at the City of Linares 2000 Super GM chess tournament.

The Indian Grandmaster, who must now be hoping that the tournament gets over fast, drew in 25 moves against Valdimir Kraminik and continues to lie at the bottom of the six-man table.

The other two matches in the seventh round, too, ended in draws. But the round, despite three draws, was most interesting.

Gary Kasparov, the world No 1, drew against Alexander Khalifman, the FIDE champion. The former came to the table all keyed up to go for the jugular. Try as he did, Khalifman played perfectly and showed that he is indeed worthy of being put in this class of Super GMs. The players drew in 55 moves of a French Winawer.

Khalifman, at 2656, is the lowest rated player among the six. The next lowest rated is Peter Leko, at 2725.

In the third match of the day, Leko drew with Alexi Shirov in a 56-move humdinger.

With three more rounds to go, Kasparov and Kramnik share the top spot with 4.5 points, while Leko is one full point behind them in the third spot. Khalifman and Shirov have three points each and Anand brings up the rear with 2.5 points.

Unless Anand wins two of his last three games, one of which is against Kasparov, he will end up with less than 50 per cent points, something that has not happened to him in a long time.

In round eight, Anand has black against Shirov, while Khalifman meets Leko but the derby match of the round, maybe of the tournament itself, will be the one between Kramnik and Kasparov. Kramnik has white. Rarely have this duo gone for a kill against each other, for so close is their bonding off the board and in preparations. But with a prestigious title like this at stake, it could well be an exception this time.

Kasparov came to the match against Khalifman with a clear aim: go for a win. He did the right things, came up with fine novelty on the seventh move itself with 7.Qg4. The move gave up the centre for dynamic play. Khalifman took it cooly and played perfectly. It led to Kasparov going in a deep think, which cost him a lot of time. So much so the champion was in time pressure. He was unable to find a breakthrough and with the first time control approaching, he also had one eye on the clock. Khalifman held out for a good draw.

Anand, with white, drew in 25 moves following a Petroff against Kramnik. Anand had a new move on the 13th to build some pressure on the open king file. Anand held material advantage with rook for a knight and pawn. With opposite colour bishops, a draw was clearly there, but Anand could have prolonged the game for Kramnik, who must have been happy to get some more time to prepare for the big clash against Kasparov in the eighth round.

The Leko-Shirov clash was a fluctuating one in the English opening. At various stages Leko seemed like he was winning, but Shirov managed to ward off threats with good counterplay. The game ended in a draw in 56 moves. Leko opened with 1. C4, because he apparently wanted to avoid the Sicilian-Najdorf and it also showed that Leko is preparing new openings. After 40 moves, Leko seemed well on way to victory as he had two passed pawns clear. Shirov even admitted that he thought of resigning. But Leko played 41. Nf5 instead of a winning 41. Rdc1 and allowed Shirov to wriggle out by setting up a perpetual check situation.

Standings after round seven: 1-2 Kramnik and Kasparov (4.5 points each); 3. Leko (3.5); 4-5 Khalifman and Shirov (3.0 each); 6. Anand (2.5).

Results of round 7: Anand drew with Kramnik; Kasparov drew with Khalifman; Leko drew with Shirov.

UNI