Kramnik, Adams, Leko waltz into Round Three

Three of the other 2700-rated players, Michael Adams of England, Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk and 19-year-old Peter Leko of Hungary advanced to third round by winning their games. Boris Gelfand of Israel moved on by taking a draw in a better position against England’s Jonathan Speelman.

Others securing places in the next round include Judit Polgar, the only woman remaining in the field, Nigel Short, Peter Svidler, Alexey Dreev and Evgeny Bareev of Russia, Alexei Fedorow of Belarus, Rafel Leitao of Brazil, Jan Timman of The Netherlands, and Alexander Beliavsky of Slovenia.

Second seed Alexei Shirov of Spain, who appeared to be in deep trouble after losing with white on Tuesday, came roaring back with a win over tough Bosnian IvanSokolov. He will join players from other 13 tied matches in playoffs tonight.

Gata Kamsky, returning to the chess scene after a three-year absence because of medical studies, showed some rust as he spoiled an excellent position and lost to Alexander Khalifman of Russia. Kamsky, who lost a World championship match to Anatoly Karpov in 1996, needed a draw, but weakened his position with overly aggressive play.

Vesselin Topalov of Bulgaria avenged Tuesday’s loss against the youngest player in this event, 15-year-old Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. Ponomariov seemed to have a solid position, but the experienced Topalov managed to break through.