WIJK AAN ZEE, JANUARY 20: VLADIMIR Kramnik beat Viswanathan Anand for the first time in this millennium in a superb sixth round game at the Corus Grandmasters chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee. It put a big break in Anand’s quest for a record sixth Corus title and also announced the return of Kramnik.

The leader is still Teimour Radjabov, who has five points and is full one point clear of second placed Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. Anand slipped to tied fourth with Aronian and Karjakin.

In the seventh round NIIT-sponsored Anand will have white pieces with Radjabov. And in the case the Indian wins, it will once again throw open the tournament.

About his match with Anand, Kramnik said, “ We hardly ever beat each other”, implying their games are usually drawn. Employing the Catalan which he used in his match against Topalov, Kramnik tried a new idea, which was improvement on the Ponomariov - Anand game in the first round here in Corus.

Kramnik’s new idea started with 16.a3 and from then on it was a tussle with black required to defend accurately and white trying pile on the pressure.

Then on 18th, Kramnik played 18. Qf1 and then his 19 b4 won the opening battle. From Anand’s side the mistake may have been 33.. Rd7 but the resistance was being well handled by Kramnik.

Though he was in a weaker position Anand made Kramnik work hard and defended tenaciously in the minor piece ending. Kramnik had to play perfectly and show great accuracy. When Anand could not both prevent the white king from either escorting his b-pawn and thus winning the knight, or alternatively, winning the h7 pawn, he acknowledge defeat by resigning.

In the only other decisive game, Sergey Karjakin beat Alexey Shirov in a Sicilian Sveshnikov.

The other fives games were drawn.

A Group:

Pairings for Round 7: Shirov v Motylev; Tiviakov v Karjakin; Navara v van Wely; Ponomariov v Topalov; Anand v Radjabov; Aronian v Kramnik; Carlsen v Svidler

Results Round 6: Radjabov drew with Ponomariov; Kramnik beat Anand;
Topalov drew with Navara; Karjakin beat Shirov; Svidler drew with Aronian; Motylev drew with Carlsen; Van Wely drew with Tiviakov

Round 6 Standings: 1. Radjabov 5.0; 2. Kramnik and Topalov 4.0; 4. Aronian, Anand and Karjakin 3.5; 7. Ponomariov, Navara and Svidler 3.0; 10. Motylev and Van Wely 2.5; 12. Tiviakov and Carlsen 2.0; 14. Shirov 0.5.