Shirov continues to lead

LINARES, March 7: Leader Alexy Shirov consolidated his position on the leader-board with a superb win over world number two Vladimir Kramnik...

LINARES, March 7: Leader Alexy Shirov consolidated his position on the leader-board with a superb win over world number two Vladimir Kramnik in the 11th round of the category-21 Super Grandmasters chess tournament here last night.

Shirov, who leads with 6.5 points, played with white pieces including the PCA world champion Garry Kasparov and India’s Viswanathan Anand.

Anand, who is one-and-a-half points behind Shirov and half-a-point ahead of Kasparov, had a bye yesterday.

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Kasparov dished out his sixth-successive draw when he was held by Vassily Ivanchuk (4). This was his eighth stalemate in nine games and is on the third spot with 4.5 points.

Peter Svidler (3.5) scored his second win when he defeated Vasselin Topalov (3).

All the three games today were in Ruy Lopez but Kramnik (4.5) played the variation with black and the Svilder versus Topalov game was in Berlin defence. This was Kramnik’s first defeat in the tournament while Kasparov is yet to lose a game.

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