ANAND BEATS LEKO TO JUMP IN SOLE LEAD

PTI
Thursday, February 21, 2008

Morelia (Mexico) (PTI): World Champion Viswanathan Anand coasted to
his third victory with black and jumped into sole lead by defeating
Peter Leko of Hungary in the fifth round of the Morelia-Linares Chess
tournament here.

It was a sheer display of immaculate technique that paced the way
for Anand to reach the top of the tables.

The Indian ace is yet to win a game with white pieces here but with the
inferior colour in the game standing behind him firmly, the defending
champion looks set to roll for another title victory here.

On a dramatic day in the category-21 double round-robin tournament,
Norwegian sensation Magnus Carlsen also coasted to a victory over
former world champion Veselin Toaplov of Bulgaria employing the
extremely rare Alekhine defense.

For Carlsen, this was the first victory in the event too and coming
with black, it served as a big booster to the wily teenager.

In other games of the day, Levon Aronian of Armenia played out an
uneventful draw with Alexei Shirov of Spain while Vassily Ivachuk of
Ukraine signed peace with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

With nine rounds still remaining in the tournament, Anand is now in
sole lead on 3.5 points and following a half point behind is Aronian.

Topalov, Shirov and Carlsen are now in joint third spot on 2.5
points apiece while the remaining three contestants Ivanchuk, Leko
and Aronian share the fifth spot with 2 points each.