Anand shares top spot but title goes to Kramnik

Anand shares top spot but title goes to Kramnik
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

DORTMUND, July 17: Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand outclassed GM Robert Huebner of Germany in the 9th and final round to tie on first place while GM Vladimir Kramnik clinched the title in the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting here on Monday.

Kramnik attested his superiority in the tournament with a quick draw against compatriot, Fide World champion, GM Alexander Khalifman.

Kramnik, who finished with six points, won the title on better tie-break than Anand. The King of Dortmund, as he is called, clinched his fifth tournament victory here in past six years.

In a sensational game, Silicon kid Junior 6 defeated Grandmaster Peter Leko of Hungary to finish with a respectable score of 4.5 points out of a possible 9.

Leko, GM Michael Adams of England and GM Vladimir Akopian of Armenia tied for 3-5 places with 5 points each to their credit.

Aware that he needed a win to tie for the coveted first place, Anand came to the board looking positive against lowly placed Huebner, whose miseries continued in the last round too.

Playing with the black pieces, Anand faced the quiet Catalan opening by Huebner and equalised easily when the German doctor played a new but dubious move on his 12th turn.

The recapture of a pawn by a pawn left Huebner with a lasting disadvantage in structure and he had to surrender the bishop pair advantage to wriggle out of his mess. An extremely well calculated manoeuvre by Anand in the later stages of the game netted him a pawn and the vulnerable position of white's king only added to Huebner's woes. The game ended after 39 moves when Huebner called it a day.

Kramnik did not have much to do as Khalifman proposed a draw after getting a clearly advantageous position in just 15 moves with white pieces. The sudden finish surprised the spectators.

The computer calculates faster and much better than humans as evident in the Leko-Junior 6 encounter. With white pieces Leko employed the four knights variation and got good attacking chances after a very ordinary 8th move by the machine.

The Hungarian star then committed a cardinal sin of computer play, he sacrificed an exchange for an attack. Against a human this would almost surely would have resulted in a win as some experts pointed out, but against a computer that defends almost perfectly, it is usually a good way to lose.

Leko watched his initiative dry up move by move in a position where only pure calculating power mattered. Junior kept white's passed pawns under control and played a dozen checks until it could move in for the kill. After 60 moves of street fighting chess, Leko resigned.

Akopian played a dull draw with Adams in just 15 moves of an English opening. The pair of knights got traded in the Maroczy bind set up arising out of an English opening when the players decided to sign peace treaty.

GM Jeroen Piket of Netherlands drew with GM Evgeny Bareev of Russia in a Semi-Slav defence game with white pieces. After routine theoritical manoeuvres Piket's novelty on the 16th move did not yield him any advantage and the game ended after 21 moves.

Results (Final round): R Huebner (2) lost to V Anand (6); A Khalifman (4) drew with V Kramnik (6); P Leko (5) lost to Deep Junior 6 (4.5); V Akopian (5) drew with M Adams (5); J Piket (3.5) drew E Bareev (4)

Final Standings: 1-2. Vladimir Kramnik (6), Vishwanathan Anand (6) 3-5. Michael Adams, Peter Leko, Vladimir Akopian (5); 6.Deep Junior 6 (4.5); 7-8. Alexander Khalifman, Evgeny Bareev (4); 9. Jeroen Piket (3.5); 10. Robert Huebner (2)

The Moves:

Robert Huebner vs V Anand

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 c6 5. Qc2 Nbxd7 6. Bg2 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 b6 9. Rd1 Ba6 10. Nbxd2 c5 11.e4 dxc4 12. bxc4 cxd4 13. e5 Ng4 14. Qe4 h5 15. h3 Nc5 16.Qxd4 Nh6 17. Ba3 Qc7 18. Bxc5 bxc5 19. Qc3 Raxd8 20. Ne4 Nf5 21. g4 hxg4 22. hxg4 Nh6 23. Nh2 Rxd1+ 24. Rxd1 Rd8 25. Rxd8+ Qxd8 26. Bf3 Bb7 27. Kg2 Bxe4 28. Bxe4 Bg5 29. Kg3 Bd2 30. Qb2 g5 31. f3 Bf4+ 32. Kg2 Qc7 33. Nf1 bxe5 34. Qe2 Bf4 35. Bb1 Kf8 36. Qb2 Ng8 37. Qh8 Be5 38. Qh5 Qd8 39. Bh7 Bf4 Huebner resigned