| Dortmund,
June 28 – Viswanathan Anand was in full flow as he outplayed
Germany's Arkadij Naiditch for his first win at the Sparkassen
Super Grandmasters Chess tournament in Dortmund. World No.
1 Anand, is now in tied second place, half a point behind
leader, Vladimir Kramnik, who is sole leader with three points.
Two
of the four games produced results in fourth round as opposed
to series of draws in third round.
NIIT-sponsored
Anand was up against the Ruy Lopez Moeller defence from Naiditsch,
who has of late produced some good results. Anand needing
to score some points as the tournament this year is just a
single round-robin opted for some risky play in the early
middlegame.
That
was when and Naiditsch could perhaps have seized the initiative.
But he failed to do so and even when Anand reached an ending
with an extra pawn, Naiditsch had his pieces active and could
possibly have drawn. But the wily Anand outplayed him and
eked out a good win.
Anand
who started the day half a point behind Kramnik stayed there
as the latter also scored a good win over young Magnus Carlsen
in a convincing manner from a Catalan. It was Kramnik's second
victory in four games.
In
other games, Evegeny Alekseev drew against Peter Leko, and
Boris Gelfand split points with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
The
World Champion crushed Magnus Carlsen, whose opening preparation
went seriously wrong. His 16th move appears to be a novelty,
but after Kramnik's strong reply Black was unable to prevent
White's cavalry establishing itself on the c6 square, after
which White had a stifling grip on the position. Kramnik soon
picked off the b5-pawn and the rest was silence...
In
the fifth round, Anand has black pieces with Mamedyarov. In
other games, Carlsen meets Gelfand, Leko has white against
Kramnik and Naiditsch has white against Alekseev.
Results
of Round 4: Kramnik beat Carlsen; Alekseev drew with Leko;
Anand drew with Naiditsch; Gelfand drew with Mamedyarov
Round 4 Standings: 1. Kramnik 3.0; 2. Alekseev and Anand 2.5;
4. Leko and Mamedyarov 2.0; 6. Gelfand and Carlsen 1.5; 8.
Naiditsch 1.0
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