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WIJK AAN ZEE, JANUARY 18: Viswanathan Anand was content going
into the first day in joint lead after a quick draw with Ivan
Sokolov in the fourth round of the Corus Grandmasters chess
tournament at the de Moriaan Hall here in Wijk Aan Zee.
Anand, supported by NIIT, shares the lead with co-favourite
Veselin Topalov and both have three points each. The first
rest day is being taken on Wednesday. Anand and Topalov lead
by half a point from Vassily Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand.
Three of the seven games produced results, but the day was
far from boring as it saw some very hard fought and complex
games. Of course many of them had mistakes, too.
In group B, there was success for India with Koneru Humpy
beating Katryna Lahno and taking her tally to 2.5 from four
games. She is now tied for fourth, with Arkadij Naditsch leading
the field with 3.5 points and three others at three points
each.
Anand, playing with black was
never in any trouble against Sokolov and agreed to take an
early draw in just 15 moves from a Queen’s Gambit Accepted.
With no prospects of a win for either side the draw seemed
fair and sensible.
The most interesting game of the day was a wild affair between
Loek van Wely and Veselin Topalov. Topalov as usual went all
out. He revived an interesting exchange sacrifice in the Slav
Defence. Van Wely reacted well to start but slowly started
weakening. And then Topalov with uncompromising style managed
to eke out a win for his third win in four games.
Leko got a small initiative against Vassily Ivanchuk's Classical
French but Ivanchuk guided the game to a sterile Queen and
Rook ending for a draw.
Michael Adams also got nothing
from the opening against Sergey Karjakin in a Sicilian Najdorf
in spite of accepting a pawn sacrifice. That game was agreed
drawn in just 24 moves.
Boris Gelfand and Lev Aronian
won with black pieces against Etienne Bacrot and Gata Kamsky.
Pairings for fifth round (on Thursday)
Tiviakov v Sokolov; Topalov v Mamedyarov; Gelfand v van Wely;
Karjakin v Bacrot; Aronian v Adams; Ivanchuk v Kamsky; Anand
v Leko.
Results of Round 4: Adams drew
with Karjakin; Leko drew with Ivanchuk; Sokolov drew with
Anand; Van Wely lost to Topalov; Mamedyarov drew with Tiviakov;
Bacrot lost to Gelfand; Kamsky lost to Aronian;
Standings after Round 4: 1.
Anand and Topalov 3.0; 3. Gelfand and Ivanchuk 2.5; 5. Adams,
Leko, Aronian, Karjakin and Mamedyarov 2.0 each; 10. Sokolov,
Tiviakov, Bacrot and Van Wely 1.5 each; 14. Kamsky 1.0
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