Anand Held To A Draw By Adams

By Arvind Aaron

World's highest rated player, Viswanathan Anand came close to disturbing the smooth rhythm of leader Michael Adams of England before drawing the fifth round game in the MTel Masters Chess Tournament being played at Grand Hotel Sofia in Bulgaria on Monday.

Russian world classical champion Vladimir Kramnik joined Michael Adams of England in the lead with three points from five games. Anand, Ponomariov are tied for the joint third place with 2.5 points. Judit Polgar and Topalov are tied for the last place with two points.

The half-way mark of the event has been reached. Anand is the only player to draw all five games. Tuesday is a rest day. From Wednesday, the players will face each other a second time with the reversed colours. Five rounds remain to be played in this six-player category 20 tournament.

If the first four rounds saw only king pawn preference by all white players, today's fifth round saw a major change of opening plans by the white players. None of the games featured king pawn. Anand went for the English opening with the white pieces and produced a spectacular knight sacrifice on the 26th move. Adams defended well and entered a pawn down ending. In order to extricate his knight, Anand sacrificed his extra pawn and thereafter could not win the ending. Typical of drawn games in this event, both players fought until they were left with their lone king when the game was declared drawn on the 54th move.

Topalov played a poor opening with the black pieces and was made to pay for it by Ponomariov after 40 moves. Topalov sprang a few tricks and sacrificed a rook for bishop and pawn. Ponomariov returned the compliment and walked his king up in the endgame to cash his first full point.

Judit Polgar attempted an early checkmate against her nemesis Kramnik with the black pieces. The world classical champion fended well and counterattacked with a pawn sacrifice to win several pawns and dominate the game. After 62 moves, Kramnik finally put his two extra pawns to use. He holds the best result by any player against Polgar.

The results (round five): Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2.5 drew Michael Adams (Eng) 3, Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 3 bt Judit Polgar (Hun) 2, Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 2.5 bt Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2.

The moves:

White: Viswanathan Anand - Black: Michael Adams, English Opening, A05: 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0-0 Be7 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.Bg5 a6 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.Qf4 0-0 12.Rfd1 Be7 13.Ne4 Bxe4 14.Qxe4 Ra7 15.Nd4 Qc8 16.b3 Bf6 17.e3 Rd8 18.Qg4 g6 19.Rd2 h5 20.Qe2 Bg7 21.Rad1 Qc5 22.h4 Rad7 23.Bh3 Re7 24.Qf3 Ree8 25.Qe4 d5 26.Nxe6 dxe4 27.Rxd8 Qe7 28.Rxe8+ Qxe8 29.Rd8 Qxd8 30.Nxd8 Bf6 31.Nb7 Be7 32.c5 Bxc5 33.Nxc5 bxc5 34.Bc8 Kg7 35.Bb7 f5 36.f3 exf3 37.Kf2 a5 38.Kxf3 Nd7 39.e4 Ne5+ 40.Ke3 c4 41.exf5 cxb3 42.axb3 gxf5 43.Ba6 Ng6 44.Be2 Kh6 45.Kd4 f4 46.gxf4 Nxf4 47.Bf3 Ng6 48.Kc5 Nxh4 49.Bxh5 Kxh5 50.Kb5 Nf5 51.Kxa5 Nd4 52.b4 Nc6+ 53.Ka4 Nxb4 54.Kxb4 Drawn.

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