| Monaco,
March 23: VISWANATHAN Anand closed the gap between him and
the leaders with a comprehensive 2-0 win over Dutchman Loek
Van Wely in the fifth round of the Melody Amber Blindfold
and rapid chess tournament.
With two wins Anand is now just one
point behind overall leaders, Vladimir Kramnik, Vassily Ivanchuk
and Lev Aronian. Anand is now in joint lead in the rapid,
where he has four out of five, but it is in Blindfold that
he is struggling with just two points from five games.
Round five was lively with the tournament
being thrown open with a 0-.5-1.5 loss of Kramnik to Ivanchuk.
Ivanchuk now joins Kramnik and Aronian in joint lead. One
behind them is Anand who had a 2-0 win over Loek Van Wely.
There are still six rounds and 12 games to go.
Anand who has a huge plus score against
Van Wely having won 18 times in 33 clashes before this event,
carried on his domination over the Dutch player. With these
two wins, Anand has now won 20 of the 35 games between the
two and has lost only twice.
The blindfold game was in Sicilian Najdorf,
one of the favourites for Anand with both white and black.
The Indian ace who helps run a Mind Chess Academy with NIIT,
Anand capitalised on a mistake from Van Wely, who on his 18th
move played g6, which landed him immediately in trouble.
Anand capitalised on his Van Wely’s
mistake of a queen move instead of g6. Anand pounced on it
and himself played g6 and unleashed a blistering attack. Anand
finished the game in great style, sacrificing a rook and offering
his queen.
Then Van Wely in the rapid game, which
was a Queen’s Indian went for a piece sacrifice which
was wrong. He missed a line that Anand took. Despite frightening
Anand for a while with his 37th move, Van Wely was soon looking
down the barrel of a gun and lost in 53 moves.
Ivanchuk elected Ukrainian player of
the year for 2006, won a short blindfold game with Kramnik.
Blitzing out his moves the Ukrainian grandmaster seemed to
be ultra-motivated to pose problems. But after 21 moves he
suddenly proposed a draw. Kramnik thought for a moment and
then accepted.
In the rapid game Kramnik played an
insipid opening that soon left him without any hopes of an
advantage. Without any real effort Ivanchuk took over the
initiative and reached a winning position after Kramnik committed
a blunder with his 22nd move which cost him a piece. Ivanchuk
rolling up his jacket sleeves with the shirt, made sure he
got the full point.
Thursday was a day of rest during which
many of the Grandmasters went on an excursion to the Esterel
mountains in the vicinity of Saint Rafaël. The excursion
also included a gourmet lunch at the L’Etoile des Mers
restaurant in Théoule sur Mer.
Results of Round 5: Blindfold: Gelfand
beat Vallejo; Carlsen drew with Leko; Svidler drew with Aronian;
Morozevich drew with Radjabov; Anand beat Van Wely;
Ivanchuk drew with Kramnik
Results of Round 5: Rapid: Vallejo beat
Gelfand; Leko drew with Carlsen; Aronian drew with Svidler;
Radjabov beat Morozevich; Van Wely lost to Anand; Kramnik
lost to Ivanchuk - 0-1
Round 5 Standings: Blindfold: 1. Kramnik
4.5; 2. Gelfand, Svidler and Ivanchuk 3.5; 5. Aronian 3.0;
6. Leko 2.5; 7. Morozevich, Radjabov and Anand 2.0; 10. Carlsen
1.5; 11. Van Wely and Vallejo Pons 1.0
Round 5 Standings: Rapid: 1. Aronian
and Anand 4.0; 3. Ivanchuk 3.5; 4. Carlsen, Morozevich, Svidler,
Leko and Kramnik 2.5; 9. Vallejo Pons 2.0; 10. Gelfand and
Radjabov 1.5; 12. Van Wely 1.0
Round 5 Standings: Combined: 1. Aronian,
Ivanchuk and Kramnik 7.0; 4. Svidler and Anand 6.0; 6. Gelfand
and Leko 5.0; 8. Morozevich 4.5; 9. Carlsen 4.0; 10. Radjabov
3.5; 11. Vallejo Pons 3.0; 12. Van Wely 2.0
|
