Hindu, India
Sunday, Sep 23, 2007

Sport – Chess

Viswanathan Anand maintains half-point lead

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand came up with another solid showing with
black pieces against second-placed Boris Gelfand to maintain his
half-point lead with a draw in the eighth round of the World chess
championship in Mexico City on Friday. The 20-move draw in Catalan
raised Anand’s tally to 5.5 points and Gelfand’s aggregate to five
points. Defending champion Vladimir Kramnik drew with fellow-Russian
Peter Svidler to stay in the third spot, one ahead of a victorious
Peter Leko who handed out Russia’s Alexander Grischuk his second
straight loss.

In the day’s shortest contest, Gelfand prevented Anand’s plans to
seize some important squares on the queenside before the players
realised the futility of testing each other.

After a day’s rest, action will resume on Sunday with Anand playing
white against Levon Aronian, the unpredictable Armenian.

The results (eighth round): Boris Gelfand (Isr, 5) drew with
Viswanathan Anand (5.5); Peter Svidler (Rus, 3) drew with Vladimir
Kramnik (Rus, 4.5); Peter Leko (Hun, 4) bt Alexander Grischuk (Rus,
3.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5) drew with Alexander Morozevich (Rus,
3).

Ninth round pairings: Anand-Aronian; Grischuk-Gelfand; Leko-Svidler;
Morozevich-Kramnik.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress