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Journalism of Courage
LINARES, Feb 28: India’S Viswanathan Anand scored a superb 31-move win over Peter Svidler of Russia to put himself back on the winning track and moved up to second position after six rounds at the Linares Chess Tournament here.Defending champion Anand, who drew all his first five rounds, outplayed Svidler last night while the tournament leader Garry Kasparov of Russia was held to a draw by Hungarian Peter Leko.
Anand (3.5 points) is just half point behind Kasparov (4) as the tournament approached the mid-way stage. Vladimir Kramnik (3.5) is also on second position with Anand. Also scoring his first win of the tournament was Kramnik, who inflicted on Michael Adams his second successive defeat.World number one Kasparov was held to a draw after a long 48-move game by Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk, who lost two games on time, drew with Vasselin Topalov after a marathon 60 moves.
Anand opened with a queen pawn and came up against the Grunfeld defence from Svidler. He attacked from early stages and after his 14thmove novelty, Svidler too replied with a new one on the 16th.
Giving up castling Anand went in for a king side attack. Using his knight to the maximum, Anand first got Svidler’s rooks and then placed his powerful knight in the centre to take a strangehold of the game.
When the end came, Anand had his rook in F1, the queen on H8 and a knight on G7 to completely dominate the board a mate was eminent.
Kasparov was engaged in a rook and opposite colour bishop ending with Peter Leko. Kasparov, famous for wearing down opponents by sheer determination, tried hard to force win but Leko did not buckle under pressure and was more than equal to the task. In a Sicilian defence game, players split the point after 48 moves.
Results of 6th round: Anand bt Svidler; Kramnik bt Adams; Kasparov drew with Leko; Ivanchuk drew with Topalov.
Standings: Kasparov (4); Anand, Kramnik (3.5 each); Adams, Svidler, Topalov (3 each); Leko (2.5); Ivanchuk (1.5).
