Anand gets another crack at Kasparov

LINARES (SPAIN), FEBRUARY 29: Peter Leko of Hungary and the world's second-ranked player, Viswanathan Anand of India, played to a draw in ...

int(4)

LINARES (SPAIN), FEBRUARY 29: Peter Leko of Hungary and the world’s second-ranked player, Viswanathan Anand of India, played to a draw in the annual Linares Grandmaster tournament which got underway here last evening.

Six of the world’s best chess players are competing in the tournament, which could turn out to be a de facto World Championship.

Leko, 20, is the sixth ranked player in the world and the top junior.Leko and Anand were the first to finish a game. Playing the black pieces, Anand chose a currently popularline of the solid Caro-kann Defence.

Story continues below this ad

In this line, a favourite of former world champion Anatoly Karpov, white’s advantage is often more theoretical than practical. At the top level, 16. Rd8 has been the preferred move. But Anand’s 16. Ke7 was played in the game by Hossain-de Wachter in the 1998 World Junior Championship.

The two Grandmasters followed that game until Anand varied with 19. Rhd8. With the exchanges over the next several moves, Anand achieved complete equality and had used far less time than his opponent.

On move 32, Leko had used an hour and 35 minutes while Anand had used less than an hour. Nevertheless, despite the time pressure, Leko continued to try to play for a win until move 39.