Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): Viswanathan
Anand`s hunt for an elusive victory in the `A` group continued
as he played out his sixth draw on the trot but former world
junior champion Abhijeet Gupta won an exciting game in the `C`
group of the Corus Chess Tournament here.
World champion Anand drew with white pieces against
Magnus Carlsen of Norway and moved to three points out of a
possible six.
Spaniard Alexei Shirov`s juggernaut was halted by Nigel
Short of England in the first draw for the former after five
successive wins. Shirov took his tally to 5.5 points out of a
possible six and remained one and half points ahead of nearest
rivals Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura of United States, Vladimir
Kramnik of Russia and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.
With Leinier Dominguez occupying the sixth spot on 3.5
points, Anand slipped to the joint seventh spot along with
Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Peter Leko of Hungary. Seven
rounds still remain in the category-19 tournament.
Abhijeet Gupta raised visions of an improved performance
after he came good against Danielle Vocaturo of Italy and
moved to four points in the `C` group.
Ray Robson, a 15-year-old American, continued to dominate
this section with another sparkling victory at the expense of
Bok Benjamin of Holland.
Robson has an impressive 5.5 points and he is a half
point clear of Li Chao of China. Abhijeet now occupies the
third spot here while Soumya Swaminathan is at the bottom of
the tables.
In the `B` group, Parimarjan Negi suffered a shock defeat
at the hands of Dutchman Erwin l`Ami and slipped to eighth
spot on 3 points. The other Indian in the fray, P Harikrishna
played out a draw with Varuzhan Akobian of United States and
is now on joint fourth spot on 3.5 points.
The lead position remained unchanged here as Anish Giri
defeated Tomi Nyback of Finland and moved to 5 points.
If things have to go Anand`s way from here, the Indian
ace will need a spectacular effort. The game against Carlsen,
however, was well short of that as the Norwegian quickly
equalised and the two players signed peace in less than one
hour.
Carlsen employed the Sicilian Dragon and Anand went for a
rather safe approach in the middle game to get a balanced
position.
"Carlsen`s choice of opening was a surprise. I had
prepared for sharp lines only. I went for the repetition at
the end. I would have been worse if I hadn`t," said Anand
after the 19-move affair.
Abhijeet faced the Benoni as white against Vocaturo and
was in his element in the resulting middle game. The Indian
quickly crashed on the king side spotting weaknesses in the
middle game and Vocaturo`s counter attack came too late.
It took just 37 moves for Abhijeet to add a full point to
his overnight tally.
Parimarjan was outplayed by l`Ami from an English opening
game. After an early queen exchange, Negi found the going
tough as white increased pressure on both flanks and even the
exchanges at regular intervals did not help Negi.
The game went in to a rook and pawns endgame wherein
black`s position was too loose. L`Ami won in 35 moves.
Harikrishna could not force matters against Akobian who
played the black side of an irregular opening. Harikrishna
reached a pawn plus rook and pawn endgame which was
theoretically drawn and Akobian got his third half point after
83 moves.
Reigning world junior girls` champion Soumya Swaminathan
suffered her fifth loss in six games. Robin van Kampen caught
the Indian off-guard in the Sicilian Najdorf and won in just
24 moves.
PTI
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