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Anand takes sole lead in blindfold

Vishwanathan Anand moved into top gear with a superb blindfold victory over co-leader Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and wrested the sole lead in the blindfold section of the Amber chess tournament in Monte Carlo.

The Indian Grandmaster, who went through a bad patch in the rapid section which is usually his forte, has been in excellent form in the blindfold section, where he has won four of his six games. He now leads the section with five points out of a maximum of six. However, in the six games in rapid chess, he has only 2.5 points and is lying joint seventh with Vladimir Kramnik.

Anand had drawn his rapid game with Topalov earlier and with it had a 1.5-0.5 result against Topalov, who slipped from the overall first position. Anand is now overall joint third with Anatoly Karpov, with 7.5 points.

The overall top position changed hands and Alexi Shirov, who had a 1.5-0.5 result against Predrag Nikolic in the sixth round, now has nine points, while Topalov is second at 8.5 points.

While Anand leads the blindfold section, Alexi Shirov, with five, leads the rapid section.

Anand was highly impressive in the victory over Topalov in the blindfold game after the first rapid game between the two ended in a draw after a long fight.

In the blindfold match, Anand had a much better game, but he seemed to have lost it for a while by playing too eagerly for a win. Topalov got some counter play, but then Anand came up with a beautiful plan, which was followed by a mating attack. The plan was excellent considering it was a blindfold game, where the players only have a blank board to look at.

Shirov drew the first game, the rapid, with black against Nikolic. It was a an exchange variation of the Slav in which Nikolic sacrificed a piece for two pawns and the attack, but it was not enough for a win.

In blindfold, Shirov, with white, did not get any special advantage against the Pirc defence from his rival. But Nikolic could not come up with the correct follow up and lost in the end game.

Kramnik has been having a bad time in this tournament. He lost yet another game, this time to Loek Van Wely in the rapid. Playing with black, he won a pawn after the opening and played accurately for a win.

In the blindfold, Van Wely messed his end game and lost to even out things for Kramnik.

Results of the sixth round:

Rapidplay: Topalov drew with Anand; Gelfand drew with Lautier; Nikolic drew with Shirov.

Blindfold: Shirov beat Nikolic; Anand beat Topalov; Karpov drew with Piket; Van Wely lost to Kramnik; Ljubojevic beat Ivanchuk; Lautier drew with Gelfand.

Standings:

Rapidplay: 1. Shirov 5.0; 2. Topalov 4.5; 3. Ivanchuk 4.0; 4. Van Wely and Karpov 3.5; 6. Gelfand 3.0; 7. Anand and Kramnik 2.5; 9. Piket, Lautier and Nikolic 2.0; 12. Ljubojevic 1.5.

Blindfold: 1. Anand 5.0; 2. Karpov, Kramnik, Shirov and Topalov 4.0; 6. Piket 3.5; 7. Ljubojevic and Gelfand 2.5; 9. Van Wely 2.0; 10. Nikolic, Ivanchuk and Lautier 1.5.

Combined standings: 1. Shirov 9.0; 2. Topalov 8.5; 3. Anand and Karpov 7.5; 5. Kramnik 6.5; 6. Piket, Van Wely, Ivanchuk and Gelfand 5.5; 10. Ljubojevic 4.0; 11. Nikolic and Lautier 3.5.

UNI