Viswanathan Anand settled for a draw with the Hungarian GM Peter Leko in an interesting game and thus remained on three points, occupying the second spot along with Russian Peter Svidler at the world chess championship here.Vaselin Topalov of Bulgaria increased his lead by a commanding 1.5 points when he defeated his nearest rival, Peter Svidler with black pieces in the fifth round.Continuing from where he Left before the rest day, a visibly rejuvenated Topalov played an enterprising game to outwit Svidler in 44 moves from the black side of a sharp Sicilian Defence.Annihiliating the defences of his nearest occupant in the points position, that too with black pieces, Topalov has very loudly announced his clear ambitions to go full throtttle in this prestigious event, conducted to decide the title of world champion.Topalov has now reached a mammoth score of 4.5 from 5 rounds, pulling away from Anand and Svidler, who are the immediate duo behind the leader on 3 points.In what could be termed as an otherwise uneventful round, Topalov’s win proved to be the only decisive result of the round, all the other games ending in draws, probably an influence of yesterday being the first rest day of the event.The shortest encounter of the round was between the English Grandmaster Michael Adams and the holder of the world champion title, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, whose game ended in an uneventful draw in 29 moves. Leko’s strategy of following Kasparov paid dividends in a sharp Sicilian Pelikan against Anand. Leko adopted the system preferred by Kasparov himself against Anand at Linares early this year. Sensing his opponent’s home preparation, Anand deviated from known theory on the 18th move with a pawn thrust on the queenside, thus creating a passer.The whole of the game centered on his strategic goal of promoting the pawn to the queening square, and Anand indeed looked like enjoying an advantage at this point.However, Leko once again showed his proven defensive skills to patiently stop Anand’s designs on the queenside. Sensing the importance of winning this game, Anand offered sacrificed a pawn on the 28th move, thus ensuing that the b-passer continued its march unhindered.However, Leko cleverly sacrificed the exchange and patiently defended the ensuing ending to draw the game after 60 moves.In another game between two of the most creative players in the world, GM Judith Polgar of Hungary reached what looked like a promising position but couldn’t breach the defences of the unpredictable Alexander Morozevich of Russia, the game ending in a draw in 41 moves, just after the time scramble got over.While Kasimdzhanov is the only player on equal score of 2.5 points, the Hungarians Polgar and Leko are on 2 points, while the Adams and Morozevich are the tailenders with 1.5 points.
