Polgar Holds Anand To A Draw

By Arvind Aaron

World's top rated woman player since 1989, Judit Polgar of Hungary held the top seed Viswanathan Anand to a fighting draw in the fourth round of the MTel Masters Chess Tournament being played at Grand Hotel Sofia in Bulgaria on Sunday.

For the second time in the tournament, all three games ended in fighting draws. Michael Adams of England continues to lead the tournament with 2.5 points. Anand remains in joint second place with two points with four draws. Others with him on the same points are Judit Polgar, Kramnik and Topalov. Ponomariov is on 1.5 points.

Anand played the Sicilian Taimanov with the black pieces and got into an unclear position out of the opening. His new 14th move gave Polgar the rook for bishop advantage. Thereafter, a bishop and rook sacrifice by Polgar left Anand on the defensive. Spectators had enough. In the ending, Anand had a bishop and Polgar three pawns. Polgar managed to promote her king bishop pawn and collect the black bishop of Anand. Anand had mopped the white pawns. The game was evenly fought and on the 70th move, the players had just their kings left on the board.

Topalov tried to repeat Anand's idea from the recent Amber tournament against Kramnik. A pawn sacrifice by Topalov did not give the expected returns. He had to fight for a draw with the white pieces against the Petroff's defence. Kramnik played on in the rook and pawn ending until move 52 before signing for the draw.

Adams and Ponomariov added just seven more moves to theory before sharing points with a draw by repetition. Adams perpetually checked the black king in a rooks ending to draw in 27 moves.

The results (fourth round): Judit Polgar (Hun) 2 drew Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2, Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2 drew Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 2, Michael Adams (Eng) 2.5 drew Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 1.5.

The moves:

White: GM Judit Polgar - Black: Viswanathan Anand, Sicilian Taimanov, B46: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Re1 Be7 10.e5 Nd7 11.Qg4 g6 12.Bh6 Rb8 13.Qh3 Rb4 14.Bg7 Rg8 15.Qxh7 Rxg7 16.Qxg7 Bf8 17.Qg8 Qg5 18.g3 Nxe5 19.f4 Nf3+ 20.Kf2 Qh5 21.Bxg6 fxg6 22.Rxe6+ Bxe6 23.Qxe6+ Be7 24.Qxc6+ Kf8 25.Qa8+ Kg7 26.Qxd5 Nxh2 27.Qxh5 gxh5 28.Rh1 Ng4+ 29.Kf3 Nf6 30.b3 Rb6 31.Ne4 Nxe4 32.Kxe4 Kg6 33.c4 Re6+ 34.Kf3 Rd6 35.Re1 Rd3+ 36.Kg2 Bf6 37.Re6 a5 38.Ra6 Kf5 39.c5 Bd4 40.Rd6 Ke4 41.c6 Rc3 42.Kh3 Bf2 43.Rg6 Bb6 44.Kh4 Rc5 45.Rd6 Bc7 46.Rd7 Rxc6 47.Kxh5 Bd6 48.Kg5 Ba3 49.Ra7 Rc5+ 50.Kg6 Bb4 51.Ra6 Rc3 52.Re6+ Kf3 53.f5 Rc2 54.f6 Rxa2 55.f7 Kxg3 56.Kg7 Rf2 57.Rg6+ Kh3 58.Rh6+ Kg2 59.Rh5 Rf3 60.Rg5+ Kf2 61.Kg8 Rg3 62.Rxg3 Kxg3 63.f8Q Bxf8 64.Kxf8 Kf4 65.Ke7 Ke5 66.Kd7 Kd5 67.Kc7 Kc5 68.Kb7 Kb4 69.Ka6 a4 70.bxa4 Kxa4 Draw.

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