Anand draws for sixth time, Abhijit wins in Group C

Published>Sat, Jan 23 10 08:49 PM

Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands), Jan 23 (IANS) Viswanathan Anand played a sixth successive draw in the Corus Grandmasters chess tournament, this time against Magnus Carlsen, the prodigy who leads the World ratings.

The only Indian to win was Abhijit Gupta in Group C, where he is placed third. He beat Daniele Vocaturo. Pentala Harikrishna drew his game, while Parimarjan Negi and Sowmya Swaminthan lost their games here Friday.

In Group A, Alexei Shirov failed to improve on Viktor Korchnoy's record for the longest winning streak in the Corus tournament when he settled for a draw with white in Friday's sixth round against Nigel Short. Korchnoy started with an 8-out-of-8 series to win the 1968 edition of the annual chess event at Wijk-aan-Zee for a final score of 12 out of 15.

Halfway through the 13-round tournament, the Spanish GM remained on top of the A-Group standings, 1.5 points ahead of the world's highest rated player, Carlsen of Norway, and three other competitors sharing the second spot.

The Carlsen-Anand chess fans hoped for a game that would be a 'clash of the titans'. But they were disappointed. Playing black, the Norwegian boy-wonder picked a tame line from the Sicilian Dragon and then accepted Anand's offer of a draw after a mere 19 moves and less than half-an-hour of play.

In Group B, Parimarjan Negi suffered his first loss, going down to Erwin L'Ami of Holland in 35 moves of an English counter game. Harikrishna drew with Varuzhan Akobian in a marathon 86 moves of Modern defence.

In Group C, Abhijit Gupta scored a good win over Daniele Vocaturo of Italy to take his four points and move to third place. Sowmya continued to struggle as she lost to Robin van Kampen. Sowmya has half a point in six games.

'I tried,' said Anand, who has so far produced only draws in this year's competition. 'But Carlsen's choice of opening was a surprise. I had prepared for sharp lines only. I went for the repetition at the end. I would have been worse if I hadn't.'

Two other runners-up, Vassili Ivanchuk and Hikaru Nakamura, played each other and were equally quick to sign the peace. Vladimir Kramnik joined the runners-up on the strength of a well-played victory in 56 moves from a King's Indian against Loek van Wely. The 500-euro prize for the best game of the day was awarded to Cuba's Leinier Dominguez, who downed Holland's Sergei Tiviakov in 38 moves from a Catalan.

Jan Smeets drew in 25 moves with black from a Petroff Defence against Sergei Karjakin of Russia. In the final A-Group game of the round, Peter Leko beat Fabiano Caruana in a Ruy Lopez with white.

The 250 euros for the best game in Group B once again went to Dutch champion Anish Giri, who remained in first place after defeating Finland's Tomi Nyback in 37 moves with black from a Slav Defence.

In Group C, the award of 100 euros was awarded to Stefan Kuipers. The 20-year-old Dutchman overcame Mariya Muzychuk of the Ukraine in 47 moves with black from an unusual Sicilian Defence.

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