MONACO, March 21: Viswanathan Anand blundered his blindfold game and was then unable to make up in the rapid game against Vladimir Kramnik in the fourth round of the Melody Amber Blindfold and rapid chess tournament.

Even as Kramnik kept his perfect record in blindfold, Anand despite only half a point in rapid maintained his second posisition in Rapid section behind Lev Aronian, who has 3.5 out of four in the section.

After the fourth round of the 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament little changed in terms of standings at the top of the table. However the leaders did make their position a little more stronger.

Kramnik kept a perfect score in the blindfold and maintained the lead in the overall standings half a point ahead of Aronian, who dropped his first half point in the rapid competition, and Vasily Ivanchuk, who defeated the surprising tail-ender Teimour Radjabov 1.5-0.5.

Anand is second in Rapid and tied for eighth in blindfold. Overall he is fifth, but there is still seven more rounds to go. After four rounds, the players will have their first rest day.

The blindfold game between Kramnik and Anand produced the biggest blindfold error so far. The Nimzo-Indian game seemed headed for none-to-exciting draw, where White (Kramnik) was only marginally better. Then Anand played his rook to f2, thinking he was trading it there for its white counterpart. But Anand had blundered as the white rook was on f1, which Kramnik realised at one and one move later he had wrapped up the game and a full point in just 30 moves. The win also avenged Kramnik’s loss to Anand in the 2005 Amber blindfold game.

Stung by the reverse Anand went on an all-out attack in rapid which opened in the Ruy Lopez. He sacrificed a full rook and aimed as many pieces at the black king as possible. Kramnik survived the pressure and onslaught with some great defence and after 56 moves, the duo agreed to a draw with both attacker and defender playing superbly.

The blindfold game between Teimour Radjabov and Vasily Ivanchuk saw a funny ‘incident’ when the Azerbaijani grandmaster asked the arbiter permission to go to the toilet. Normally speaking the players can go there alone if they go through a door at the back of the playing room and follow a route that doesn’t allow them to see any of the monitors where the games are shown. As this door turned out to be locked Radjabov had to go through the other door, but in this case he’d be able to see the monitors for the spectators in the playing room if he turned around. So, accompanied by chief arbiter Geurt Gijssen he left the room watching straight ahead and when he came back he had to cover his eyes with a napkin! Radjabov drew the blindfold game, but lost the rapid to Ivanchuk.

Results: Round 4: Blindfold: Radjabov drew with Ivanchuk; Kramnik beat Anand 1-0; Van Wely beat Morozevich; Vallejo lost to Svidler 0-1; Aronian beat Carlsen; Leko drew with Gelfand

Results: Round 4: Rapid: Ivanchuk beat Radjabov; Anand drew with Kramnik; Morozevich beat Van Wely; Svidler beat Vallejo; Carlsen drew with Aronian; Gelfand drew with Leko

Round 4 Standings: Blindfold: 1. Kramnik 4.0; 2. Svidler and Ivanchuk 3.0; 4. Gelfand and Aronian 2.5; 6. Leko 2.0; 7. Morozevich and Radjabov 1.5; 9. Carlsen, Anand, Van Wely and Vallejo Pons 1.0;
Round 4 Standings: Rapid: 1. Aronian 3.5; 2. Anand 3.0; 3. Morozevich, Kramnik and Ivanchuk 2.5; 6. Carlsen, Leko and Svidler 2.0; 9. Gelfand 1.5; 10. Vallejo Pons and Van Wely 1.0; 12. Radjabov 0.5 Round 4 Standings: Combined: 1. Kramnik 6.5; 2. Aronian 6.0; 3. Ivanchuk 5.5; 4. Svidler 5.0; 5. Gelfand, Morozevich, Leko and Anand 4.0; 9. Carlsen 3.0; 10. Radjabov, Vallejo Pons and Van Wely 2.0