Anand recovers, in sixth place

Monte Carlo, March 18: Viswanathan Anand recovered well to notch one win and one draw against Alexei Shirov as Vassily Ivanchuk held over...

Monte Carlo, March 18: Viswanathan Anand recovered well to notch one win and one draw against Alexei Shirov as Vassily Ivanchuk held overnight leader Anatoly Karpov in both games of the 8th Amber rapidplay and blindfold chess tournament. But the star of the day was Jeroen Piket, who won both his rapid and blindfold games against Predrag Nikolic.

Anand showed excellent play against Shirov and could well have come up with a 2-0 result, but for some stout defence by Shirov in blindfold.

Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik and Joel Lautier, who all have three points out of four, currently lead the field. Anand has two out of four, following his poor first round, when he managed only a half point.

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Rapidplay (Round 2): Shirov (Esp) lost Anand (Ind); Topalov (Bul) bt Van Wely (Ned); Ljubojevic (Yug) drew Kramnik (Rus); Gelfand (Isr) drew Lautier (Fra); Nikolic (Bosn) lost Piket (Ned); Karpov (Rus) drew lvanchuk (Ukr).

Blindfold (Round 2): Anand (Ind) drew Shirov (Esp); Van Wely (Ned) lost Topalov (Bul); Kramnik (Rus)bt Ljubojevic (Yug); lautier (Fra) bt Gelfand (Isr); Piket (Ned) bt Nikolic (Bih); lvanchuk (Ukr) drew Karpov (Rus).

Overall standings: 1 Kramnik, Lautier, Karpov 3; 4 Piket, Topalov 2.5; 6 Ljubojevic, Anand, Nikolic 2; 9 Shirov 1.5; 10 Ivanchuk, Van Wely 1; 12 Gelfand 0.5.

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