Anand ready to go for the kill

A day’s rest earlier in the tournament — going into which he was placed fifth in overall standings — also helped him immensely as the Indian maestro came back strongly to win the next four matches and swing back into saddle.

Anand blanked Frenchman Joel Lautier in the fifth round and then scored identical 1.5-0.5 wins against Vaselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Dutchman Jeroen Piket to move up to second spot.

But in the eighth round, Anand allowed Predrag Nikolic of Bosnia to easily draw the blindfold game with black pieces which saw Topalov edge past him to second spot with 11 points.

Anand, the defending champion in that section, is fifth in rapid play standings with a 50 per cent score.

But importantly, he has had a wonderful run in the blindfold section where he has amassed six points out of a possible eight thus far to be in sole lead.

In the blindfold, the players start with 25 minutes on their clocks and add 20 seconds after every move they make.

The 12 player, 22-game where each play the same opponent twice, has witnessed quite a few exciting games.

The participants are playing extremely competitive chess though the tournament is not a rated event because of the high total prize money of $127,500.

Shirov is in top form. With 12 points already in his kitty in the overall standings, the Latvian-born Spaniard is having a great tournament.

So far Shirov, who has a full point lead over Topalov, has played high quality chess and his superb results are mainly due to his never-say-die approach.

Topalov, too, has exhibited excellent chess. Coming into the tournament after a four-month rest, he has appeared a man with superb opening preparation. His opponents have invariably been short of time here as he almost blitzes the first 25 moves in both varieties of the games.

The loss to Shirov in the seventh round put him off a bit but he bounced back with a 2-0 victory over former FIDE World champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the next game to be on 11 points from eight rounds.

Defending champion Vladimir Kramnik (10 points) of Russia has jumped to fourth after a few hiccups in initial rounds. Once touted a successor to Garry Kasparov as World champion, he has not been his usual self and has struggled early on.

His victories have not been convincing but the tremendous talent has helped him a great deal.

Vassily Ivanchuk is on a comeback trail too. The indifferent start does not seem to have worried him and he has gradually made his way up to fifth overall with nine points.