Victory in the four-way battle of the giants in Frankfurt, Kasparov's fourth win in the four tournaments he had played this year, was sweet for Kasparov as he finally managed to subdue archrival Anatoly Karpov on the last day.

Karpov, currently Fide world champion, had managed three times over in the 12-round series to hold Kasparov to a draw.

Not so yesterday when Karpov had no answer to the superior strategy of Kasparov who was playing white. Karpov, 48, mounted a Nimzo-Indian Defence but came under heavy pressure in the middle game and began running short of time as he considered his moves.

Karpov was helpless in the face of white's bishop pair, which supported the advance of a queenside pawn to secure victory for Kasparov, 36, on the 43rd move. Karpov's final tournament score was4.5.

Anand, the winner of last year's Chess Classics in Frankfurt and tied for second this time round, was meanwhile preparing for a weekend rematch against Fritz 6, a computer programme. Anand beat the computer last year 1.5-0.5 but Fritz's `trainers' have obtained a much more powerful computer this time to run the programme in an effort to subdue the Indian Grandmaster.

Remaining Placings

4 Peter Svidler of Russia (7.0 points), 5 Judit Polgar of Hungary (6.0) and Christopfer Lutz of Germany (6.0), 7 Alexander Morozevich of Russia (5.5), 8 Michael Adams of Britain (3.5).