VISWANATHAN Anand met with mixed luck as he won one and lost one against Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the third round of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament.Anand lost the blindfold, which has been his problem area in the competition, but was at his best in the rapid game to draw level with Ivanchuk.Meanwhile, reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia maintained his clean slate in the blindfold section, accounting for one of the main contenders, Alexander Morozevich, in a fine game. The rapid game between the two was drawn, leaving Kramnik in sole lead in the combined standings as well. With 16 games still to come in this unique annual event, Kramnik has 5 points in all while Levon Aronian of Armenia is his closest rival, a half-point behind. Ivanchuk is next in line on 4 points while Anand is on fourth spot with 3.5 points. In the blindfold section, Anand’s standing took a nosedive, as this was his second loss in three days in this section. Kramnik is on 3 points here followed by Ivanchuk on 2.5. Anand shares the 8th spot on just one point from three games.In the rapid event, Aronian continued his dominance after beating Boris Gelfand of Israel and moved to 3 points. Anand is in second spot here — a half point behind.
