Anand maintains lead

MADRID, May 14: Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand lived dangerously early on before forcing the Hungarian GM Peter Leko to make a draw offer and...

MADRID, May 14: Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand lived dangerously early on before forcing the Hungarian GM Peter Leko to make a draw offer and remained the sole leader after the third round in the 7th Torneo Magistral Madrid Open chess here last night.

The Indian Grandmaster Anand is topping the pack of 10 players with 2.5 points from three games and is closely followed by Spanish GMs San Segundo and Miguel Illescas and Peter Svidler of Russia, all on two points.The world number two Anand, playing with black peices for the first time here, was in slight trouble after the opening moves but battled his way back forcing Leko to make draw offer in 21 moves.

Though leko was in a better position in the endgame, his surprising peace offer after 21 moves was readly accepted by Anand. The game was heading towards an interesting climax but the Hungarian8217;s offer abruptly brought the game to end. Leko, who has drawn his all the games in this tournament and was involved in caro-kann opening games, made a new move on the11th which troubled Anand for a while.

The 28-year-old Anand made a tactical move on the 15th to retort back but Leko found gaps to neutralise the surging Anand8217;s queen by trapping it. A baffled Anand started to struggle and in doing so he lost the castling right but Leko could think no better option but to go for a truce.

The Russian GM Peter Svidler was invloved in a crucial game with World number 10 A Beliavsky where he crushed the Slovakian in 43 moves. Playing with black pieces, Svidler opted for grunfled defence which negated Beliavsky8217;s pawn offer and gave the Russian an upperhand.

The shortest draw was played by bottom seed San Segundo and Granda Zuniga of Peru when they agreed for peace offer after 20 moves with most of the pieces still on the board.

A Yermolinsky of US, who was the joint leader with Anand after the first day8217;s play, faced a mating attack from Illecas of Spain in the third round and resigned after 44 moves. GM Michael Adams UK and Michael Krasenkov of Poland drew their gamein 45 moves. The category-17 tournament with has a rest day tonight. The fourth round games will resume late tomorrow with Anand taking on the Slovakian Beliavsky with white pieces.

RESULTS Third round

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P Leko Hun,1.5 drew with V Anand Ind,2.5; M Illescas Esp,2 bt A Yermolinsky US,1; M Krasenkov Pol,1 drew with M Adams Eng,1; A Beliavsky Slv,1 lost to P Svidler Rus,2; San Segundo Esp,2 drew with Granda Zuniga Peru,1.

STANDINGS

1. V Anand; 2. M Illescas, San Segundo, P Svidler; 5 P Leko; 6. M Adams, A Beliavsky, Granda Zuniga, M Krasenkov, A Yermolinsky.