Monte Carlo, March 21: His strength proving to be his Achilles' heel, Viswanathan Anand will hope to exploit his new found success in the blindfold version to climb up from a disappointing fifth position when the ninth Amber chess tournament gets underway after the first rest day.Renowned as the `Lightening Kid' on the World chess circuit, Anand is struggling to win in rapid chess, on the basis of which he has claimed two titles here in 1994 and 1997, and has just four points from as many rounds.Grandmasters Alexi Shirov and Veselin Topolov of Bulgaria lead the 12 player, 22-game field with six points each and are followed by former World champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia who has five points.The impact of a rare dismal performance in the just-concluded Linares super GM tournament seems to continue here too for Anand, the second highest rated player in the World after Russian Garry Kasparov.Arguably the fastest player in the world, Anand's problem - in what is often referred to as his forte - has been a major concern for both the Indian GM and his fans.Thus far the Indian stalwart has scored only one point from four games in rapid and he would certainly want to set the record straight in the next seven.The Indian slumped to two consecutive defeats in rapid chess - losing to Armenian-born Spaniard Alexi Shirov in the third round and then to Leok van Wely in the next.Quite interestingly Anand is leading the blindfold jointly with Karpov and Topolov, having amassed 3 points out of a possible four. And thanks to his performance in blindfold, his overall standing has not slumped.The winning touch which has been elusive for the past fortnight is what Anand would look forward to regain.A victory in the fourth round of blindfold against Topolov (his last game before the rest day) will also be a morale booster for the Indian maestro.The rapid section, here, has proved a graveyard for stars as defending champion Vladimir Kramnik is also unable to find his feet.Like Anand, Kramnik has also slumped to two successive defeats against Vassily Ivanchuk and Topolov respectively.The Russian World No 3 came into the tournament on a high after being declared the joint winner with Kasparov at Linares, but has failed to live upto expectations in the first four rounds. He has only 1.5 points from the blindfold in which he is strong and is marginally better off in rapid, with 2.5 points.The elite Amber tournament is a rare one as it pits 12 top players against each other in two different versions of the game. The players meet each other twice - once each with black and white pieces in rapid and blindfold format.The blindfold is a system developed by the Lost Boys Interactive at Amsterdam, Netherlands, in which each player is in front of a screen with an empty chessboard. He makes his moves by mouse click or keyboard. The opponent's moves are announced on the screen. Checking legality of moves and time registration are automated.Although the players always see an empty board, the arbiters and audience can follow the game on video screens not visible to the players.In rapid chess, the players are given 25 minutes each and they add 10 seconds to their time as they make a move. This improves the quality of games as the players are not in any danger of losing on time.
