MONTE CARLO, March 25: Viswanathan Anand is booming back into the kind of form he is known for in rapid chess, as he outplayed Predrag Nikolic in the eighth round of the Amber Chess Tournament. But in blindfold, where he continues to lead the section, the Bosnian player helped him to a quick draw.Anand opened with Queen-Pawn opening in the blindfold and facing the Queen's Indian defence, the Indian opted for the Petrosyan variation. But Nikolic, black, managed to neutralise the advantage of white and then accepted the draw when offered by Anand. Anand still leads the blindfold section with six points out of eight and is half a point ahead of second placed trio of Shriov, Topalov and Ramnik. Against leader Shirov, the Dutch player, Piket seemed to be better for most part of the game, but pressed Shirov quite well and he was better all the time, but was unable to convert it into a win. The game was drawn. In blindfold Shirov won convincingly in a sharp line of the open Ruy Lopez.Toplov playing white in the rapid got an advantage after the opening. In addition Karpov had time problems as he just three minutes left after 21 moves, while Topalov had 23 minutes. Karpov still defended very well and prolonged the game, but in the king and knight's end game, Topalov got an edge and won.In the blindfold game Topalov showed good opening preparation. He won a pawn and later Karpov blundered a rook and lost.Kramnik with twin victories over Ljubojevic jumped in the standings. After a poor start, the Russian is fourth in overall standings and only half a point behind India's Anand.The Yugoslavian GM was better in the rapid game but allowed Kramnik to get back into the game and the Russian made good use to turn the tables and win. In the blindfold Ljubojevic lost on time, but he was in inferior position.Ivanchuk beat Lautier in the rapid but drew in the blindfold game. Loek Van Wely and Boris Gelfand drew both games. Rapidplay: Topalov beat Karpov, Kramnik beat Ljubojevic, Ivanchuk bea Lautier, Gelfand drew with Van Wely, Piket drew with Shirov, Nikolic lost to Anand.Blindfold: Shirov beat Piket, Anand drew with Nikolic, Karpov lost to Topalov, Van Wwly drew with Gelfand, Lautier drew with Ivanchuk, Ljubojevic lost to Kramnik.Rapidplay Standings: 1. Shirov 6.5 2. Ivanchuk 6.0 3. Topalov 5.5 4. Gelfand, Anand, Kramnik 4.5, 5. Van Wely Karpov 4.0 11. Piket, Nikolic 2.5 4. Lautier 2.0 12. Jubojevic 1.5.Blindfold Standings: 1. Anand 6.0 2. Topalov, Sshirov, Kramnik 5.5 5. Karpov 4.5 6. Piket, Gelfand 4.0 8. Ivanchuk 3.0 9. Nikolic, 5.5 5. Karpov 4.5.Overall Standings: 1. Shirov 12 2. Topalov 11 3. Anand 10.5 4. Kramnik 10 5. Ivanchuk 9.0 6. Gelfand, Karpov 8.5 Piket, Van Wely 6.5 10. Nikolic 5.0 11. Lautier 4.5 12. ljubojevic 4.0
