Anand on top despite second straight draw

TILBURG, Oct 27: Viswanathan Anand was held to the second consecutive draw by Bulgarian Grandmaster Vesselin Topalov in the fourth round ...

TILBURG, Oct 27: Viswanathan Anand was held to the second consecutive draw by Bulgarian Grandmaster Vesselin Topalov in the fourth round of the Tilburg International Grandmasters tournament here last evening.

Anand continues to top the 12-man table with three points followed by Topalov, Mathew Sadler (England) and Loek Van Wely (Holland) with 2.5 points each.

English GM Sadler scored an upset victory over team-mate Adams, his first win over the latter in five years, in the only decisive match of the fourth round.

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The fifth round will start tomorrow after a day’s rest today.Anand, who drew his third round game with Jeron Piket of The Netherlands yesterday, once again faced with Sicilian-Najdorf Variation from Topalov who put up a great display with his black pieces.

Anand employed the English attack but the Bulgarian decided to play for a win and the attacking styles from both sides ensured a keen tussle. Anand gave up a rook in favour of two minor pieces that led to a sharper attack, but Topalov,after a lot of exchanges, simplified the board and the Indian GM suddenly looked to be inferior. That was when the two decided to split the point.

Results (fourth round)

V Anand (India) 3 points drew with V Topalov (Bulgaria) 2.5 points, M Sadler (England) 2.5 beat M Adams (England) 2, V Zviaginsev (Russia) 2 drew with Van Wely (Netherlands) 2.5, P Svidler (Russia) 2 drew with P Leko (Hungary) 2, V Kramnik (Russia) 2 drew with J Piket (Netherlands) 1.5 and J Lautier (France) 1 drew with V Korchnoi (Switzerland) 1 point.

Indian juniors shine

CASTELLON (SPAIN): The 12-member Indian chess team today acquitted themselves with honour in the second round of the World Youth Championship, with five wins, as many draws and two losses in different age group matches.In the under-10 boys’, Abhijit Gupta beat Perez Chandelario of Spain, playing a Queen’s Gambit declined opening. His compatriot Deep Sengupta drew his match against Ho of the United States. He played a Centre Court openingagainst his American rival and lost a pawn early but managed to draw the game.

Other results

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Boys’ Under-18: Beenish Bhatia bt Sisics. Under-16: MR Venkatesh bt Hovnanian (Lebanon). Under-14: Valay Parekh drew with Bu X (China).
Under-12: P Harikrishna drew with Michels (Belgium).
Girls under-18: R Aarthi (Ind) drew with Jana K (Slovania).
Under-16: Y Pratibha lost to Wang Y (China).
Under-14: K Preeti (Ind) lost to Djuric (Yug).
Under-12: K Humpy (Ind) bt Pirzzlo (Arg).
Under-10: Saheli Nath (India) bt Carraro (Arg); Tanya Sachdev (Ind) drew with Rohackora (Slovakia)