Anand misses opportunity to tame Kasparov

Garry Kasparov and Alexander Morozevich share the lead after the third round in the Corus chess tournament. Both have 2.5 points. They are followed by Vishwanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov and Jan Timman, with two points each, and Michael Adams, Peter Leko and Vassilly Ivanchuck, who all have 1.5 points.

In Tuesday's third round matches, Kasparov and FIDE World champion Vishwanathan Anand agreed to a draw after 37 moves; Shirov and Fedorov drew; Piket and Leko drew; Timman beat Topalov; Morozevich beat Van Wely; Adams and Kramnik drew; Tiviakov and Ivanchuk drew.

Meanwhile, Alexander Morozevich (ELO rating (ELO 2745) scored a superb victory in only 19 moves to catch up with the early leader Kasparov in the third round of play. Playing against Van Wely, who made a mistake on move 13: he should have played 13.0-0-0! but he did not and the game didn't last too long after that. Morozevich is one of the upcoming talents in the chess world and experts have been reckoning he will take on the world leaders soon and it looks like he has chosen this tournament to do so.

Anand had a chance to go one up on the player regarded by many as the best ever but failed to capitalise on the chances that came his way. Twice he could have had a serious advantage. First, he could have played 18...b4! with beautiful blockading ideas (18...b4?! 19.c5! Nxc5 20.Bxf7 with strong initiative - Kasparov); and then Black could have played 32...c2! (instead of 32...Nc5), sealing White up to the first rank.

The Corus chess tournament home page

Kasparov - Anand

1.e4 e5
2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bb5 a6
4.Ba4 Nf6
5.0-0 Bc5
6.c3 b5
7.Bb3 d6
8.a4 Bg4
9.h3 Bxf3
10.Qxf3 0-0
11.a5 Rb8
12.d3 Nd7
13.Be3 Kh8
14.Nd2 Ne7
15.Bc2 Bxe3
16.fxe3 c5
17.Bb3 c4
18.dxc4 Nc5
19.cxb5 Nxb3
20.Nxb3 Rxb5
21.Qd1 Qc7
22.Ra4 Nc6
23.Nd2 Nxa5
24.b4 Nb7
25.Qc2 h6
26.Qd3 Rb6
27.Rfa1 Rc6
28.R1a3 a5
29.Kh2 d5
30.Qb5 d4
31.bxa5 dxc3
32.Nb3 Nc5
33.Rc4 Rb8
34.Qxc6 Qxc6
35.Nxc5 Qb5
36.Rcxc3 Qe2
37.Nd7 Rb2
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