Anand beats Kamsky, overall joint 3rd

By Our Chess Correspondent

Nice (France), Mar 16 (PTI) World Champion Viswanathan
Anand survived some anxious moments in the blindfold game
before registering a thumping victory in the rapid to register
a clinical 1.5-0.5 victory over Gata Kamsky in the second
round of Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament here.

Earlier in the first round, Anand had won the blindfold
but went down in rapid against Peter Leko to settle for a 1-1
draw with the Hungarian.

Levon Aronian's great start in the first round came to a
halt immediately as the Armenian dropped his queen and lost to
Leko in blindfold.

Aronian, however, struck back in the rapid game to steer
the match to a draw and also made sure that he shared the top
spot with Russian Alexander Morozevich who scored a 2-0
victory over debutant Wang Yue of China.

With Aronian and Morozevich on three points in the
combined standings, Anand and his world championship
challenger Vladimir Kramnik of Russia are in joint third spot
having 2.5 points each.

Leko, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, Veselin Topalov of
Bulgaria and Magnus Carlsen of Norway share the fifth spot on
two points each while Kamsky and Azerbaijani Teimour Radjabov
follow them a half point behind.

With nine rounds still to come in the Euro 2,16,000 prize
money tournament, Wang Yue and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine
share the last spot on one point each.

Anand shares the second spot in the blindfold behind
Kramnik who has won his games in this section so far. Aronian
and Morozevich share the lead in the rapid with a perfect
score and Anand stands joint fourth here having one point from
his two games.

Anand employed the closed Ruy Lopez with his black pieces
against Kamsky in the blindfold and came under pressure in the
middle game.

The critical moment came on the 16th move when Kamsky
could have seized the initiative with a pawn capture with his
knight but the Russian-turned-American missed on this
opportunity. The game was finally steered to an opposite
coloured Bishops endgame wherein Kamsky's extra pawn was not
of much use and the game was drawn.

In the return game, Anand faced the Breyer variation in
the Ruy Lopez playing white and outplayed Kamsky in all
departments of the game. It was on the 31st move that Anand
got a decisive advantage and held on to it to force
resignation in 49 moves.

Results Round 2:

Blindfold: Gata Kamsky (Usa) drew with V Anand (Ind);
Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) beat Teimour Radjabov (Aze); Veselin
Topalov (Bul) beat Sergey Karjakin (Ukr); Peter Leko (Hun)
beat Levon Aronian (Arm); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with
Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Alexander Morozevich (Rus) beat Wang Yue
(Chn).

Rapid: Anand beat Kamsky; Radjabov drew with Kramnik;
Aronian beat Leko; Wang Yue lost to Morozevich; Karjakin beat
Topalov; Carlsen drew with Ivanchuk. PTI CORR
JVN