Anand survives to hold Ivanchuk at Linares
Publication Date 25/2/2009 3:29:32 PM(IST)
MyNews.in, India
Linares: World champion Viswanathan Anand survived a tough scare from Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk to hold the Ukrainian for a draw in the fifth round of the Magistral Ciudad de Linares Chess tournament here today.
Anand, who now has two draws, two victories and as many losses in the tournament so far, has three points out of a possible five and was at sole third position with all the other games of the day also ending in draws.
Nine rounds still remain in the euro 314000 prize money tournament with euro 1,00,000 reserved for the winner. Overnight joint leader Levon Aronian of Armenia was held for a draw by Chinese Grandmaster Wang Yue while co-leader Alexander Grischuk of Russia also signed treaty with Magnus Carlsen of Norway to remain in joint lead with 3.5 points. Lenier Dominguez of Cuba and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan also played out a draw.
Dominguez was at the sixth spot in the eight-player double round robin event with two points while Radjabov and Wang Yue were at the bottom of the table with 1.5 points each. Anand was off to a bad start as the Indian ace repeated a line in the Slav defense, used by Russian Vladimir Kramnik against him in the seventh game of the world championship.
Ivanchuk grabbed an opportunity in the 24th move and won a pawn with consummate ease. He built up pressure on the queen side and Anand was forced to change gears and look for counter-play on the other flank. There was a stage when the game looked over for Anand as Ivanchuk had passed pawns on the queen side but the former created a few problems in white”s quest for a full point. After trading a few pawns Anand used a brilliant idea with stalemate motif and Ivanchuk did not have any answers. Finally, after 65 moves bothe players decided to settle for a draw.
Meanwhile, Wang Yue tried hard to pull down Aronian’s strong run in the tournament but could not do so as the both signed treaty after 26 moves.
Source: http://www.mynews.in
“Two draws, two wins and two losses” in “five games so far”. Wow, how did he do that?
It’s Anand, stupid!
🙂
He didn’t survive Carlsen, though.