Anand draws again; Hari, Abhijeet post victories in Corus
World Champion Viswanathan settled for his third successive draw, but P Harikrishna and Abhijeet Gupta posted wins in their respective groups.
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Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): World
Champion Viswanathan settled for his third successive draw,
but P Harikrishna and Abhijeet Gupta posted wins in their
respective groups on a reasonably good day for the Indians in
the third round of the Corus Chess Tournament here.
Anand signed peace with Cuban Leinier Dominguez in the
third round of the elite `A` group. The Indian ace remained
without a win for the third day running while Alexei Shirov of
Spain cruised to his third victory in a row to maintain his
sole lead. The Spaniard defeated local hopeful Sergei Tiviakov
and has clearly been the best performer thus far.
World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Hikaru
Nakamura of United States are not too far behind with 2.5
points each.
Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine occupies the fourth spot on 2
points while Anand shares the fifth spot along with Dominguez,
defending champion Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine and Vladimir
Kramnik of Russia. Ten more rounds still remain in this
category-19 round robin tournament.
In the `B` group, Grandmaster P Harikrishna recorded his
first victory at the expense of Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia,
while Parimarjan Negi showcased his deep preparation to hold
top seed Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany.
Ni Hua of China joined Anish Giri in the lead in this
section. Both the leaders have an identical 2.5 points from
three games and are followed by Naiditsch who is a half point
behind. Parimarjan and Harikrishna share the fourth spot on
1.5 points each along with six others.
Before Harikrishna`s victory over Muzychuk, former world
junior champion Abhijeet Gupta scored the first Indian victory
in Corus this year accounting for Stefan Kuipers of Holland.
After two draws, Abhijeet won a fine tactical game to reach
two points.
The leaders in this group are Daniele Vocaturo of Italy,
Ray Robson of United States and Li Chao of China who all have
2.5 points each.
For the third day running, Anand could not find his
winning ways. Playing black against Dominguez, the Indian ace
employed the Arkhengelsk yet again and got an easy draw
despite being a pawn less in the endgame.
Harikrishna won a tense game that looked like headed for
a draw against Muzychuk. It was almost a rabbit-out-of-hat
victory as Harikrishna eventually forced matters in a
pawn-less Queen Bishop versus Queen endgame.
Abhijeet found his opponent Stefan Kuipers to be well
prepared in the Classical Sicilian and walked in to a less
explored territory in the opening phase.
Kuipers found the going tough especially after Abhijeet
sacrificed a rook for knight and soon black forces were all
over white`s king. The game lasted 40 moves.
Bureau Report
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