The Indian, who drew his opening round match with Vassily Ivanchuk, beat Kasparov in the second and then drew with Vladimir Kramnik in the third round. He is now second position overall, half-a-point behind Kramnik, who has 2.5 points out of three. Anand has two out of three and Kasparov just one. The fourth player Ivanchuk has half a point.

Anand, playing with white pieces, defeated Kasparov in the Sicilian defence with his usual 1.E4 opening. Anand played extremely fast and still had 11 minutes of his allotted time still left, while Kasparov facing defeat had just one minute on his clock. Kasparov resigned on the 40th move as Anand's rooks on D1 and E1 threatened havoc.

Earlier, against Ivanchuk, the Indian GM played the Caro-Kann defence. Ivanchukhad initial advantage with some aggressive play in which he gave up a bishop and then another exchange later on.

Results

First day: 1st round: Kramnik b Kasparov, Ivanchuk drew with Anand, Round-II: Anand beat Kasparov, Ivanchuk lost to Kramnik; 2nd round: Kramnik drew with Anand, Kasparov beat Ivanchuk.

Points

Kramnik (2.5/3), Anand (2/3), Kasparov (1/3), Ivanchuk (0.5/3).

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