Anand tames Topolov rapidly, falls blindly

MONTE CARLO, MARCH 20: Grandmaster V Anand won his rapid game with a superb play but his progress was halted in the blindfold section by ...

MONTE CARLO, MARCH 20: Grandmaster V Anand won his rapid game with a superb play but his progress was halted in the blindfold section by Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov in the fourth round of the Amber Chess Tournament here last night.

Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik won his blindfold against the Netherlands Loek Van Wely and drew the rapid game to take sole lead as overnight Joint leader Anatoly Karpov faced reverses at the hands of French GM Joel Lautier.Fide world champion Karpov lost in blindfold game to former world junior champion Lautier and then settled for a draw in rapid to drop down to third position as Lautier (5.5) moved up to the second spot.

Kramnik, with six points, leads the pack of 12 players with seven more rounds to go into this rapid and blindfold chess championship. Anand (3.5 points) is languishing down the points table on sixth position. World No 2 Anand and Topalov played the best rapid game of the day in which the Bulgarian seemed to make a reasonable pawn sacrifice. Anand had differentplans and concluded the game with a nice mating attack. Anand’s win came in 34 moves following a Kings Indian defence as Topalov’s black missed a chance earlier on. In the blindfold section Topalov turned the tables on Anand and stunned the Indian champion. Topalov killed him by strict positional means, showing the disadvantages of a tripled pawn. It was a Caro-Kann game that went into 63 moves before Topalov won.