Anand fails to drive home advantage

Its a different Anand one sees at the Corus chess tournament. It an Anand weighed down by the title, an Anand who fails to grab oppurtunities that come his way. That was noticed during his match against the world's strongest player, Kasparov and it is even more evident on Saturday, when he faced the braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik.

In his match against ,Anand, Kramnik playing white did not sacrifice his pawn in the early going in complete contrast to the game against Kasparov. But despite this he managed to gain a slightly advantageous position. Anand defended valiantly waiting for that one false move. His defense was rewarded as Kramnik found himself in time trouble and Anand obtained a definite advantage.

In the final position, Black(Anand) definitely had a much better chance of victory and the one point he so sorely needs. More importantly he had more time then Kramnik, a factor, which would have worked in his favour.

In , the other match-ups of the day Alexander Morozevich and Garry Kasparov played out a dull draw with Morozevich systematically working his way to a draw against the ex-champion.

Shirov continued on his winning ways with another victory over Van Wely, the weakest player in the field. This was his third victory in a row. But it was not obtained without a few jitters and a missed oppurtunity on Van Wely's part.

Leko and Adams played out draw, Ivanchuk claimed his first victory of the tournament with a win over Sergei Fedorov in 33 moves. Piket played out a draw with Jan Timman as did Topalov and Tiviakov in their match-up which ended in a 26 move draw.

The Corus Chess tournament home page

Kramnik - Anand
1.d4 Nf6
2.c4 e6
3.Nc3 Bb4
4.e3 0-0
5.Bd3 d5
6.Nf3 c5
7.0-0 dxc4
8.Bxc4 Nbd7
9.a3 cxd4
10.axb4 dxc3
11.bxc3 Qc7
12.Qb3 Nb6
13.Be2 e5
14.Ra5 Be6
15.Qc2 Nbd7
16.c4 b6
17.Ra6 Rfc8
18.Nd2 Nb8
19.Ra3 a5
20.Bb2 Nc6
21.b5 Ne7
22.f4 Nd7
23.Nf3 Bf5
24.Qc3 Ng6
25.Ng5 Nc5
26.Bf3 Ra7
27.e4 Bd7
28.fxe5 Be6
29.Bh5 h6
30.Nxe6 Nxe6
31.Qg3 Qc5+
32.Kh1 Qxc4
33.Raf3 Qxb5
34.Bxg6 fxg6
35.Qxg6 Qe8
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