BIEL (Switzerland), July 24: Walking delicately through the minefield of complications, Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand (2.5) of India overcame Grandmaster Boris Gelfand (1.5) of Belarus in the third round of Credit Suisse International Grandmasters Chess Tournament being played at Congress Centre here.Anand now shares the lead with World champion Anatoly Karpov (2.5) of Russia.Last year, Anand had difficulties defending against Garry Kasparov on his way to winning Credit Suisse Masters. However, he was epitome of confidence against Gelfand today. The Indian maestroe challenged Gelfand for a duel in the same variation of Sicilian Najdorf opening.It seemed that the Belarus Grandmaster was not psychologically prepared for a sharp battle. He played an unsound piece sacrifice for a dangerous looking attack on his 16th move.Gelfand perhaps expected the Indian to defend passively at this stage. He was stunned by Anand's aggressive counter attack. The champion from Chennai went for the inadequately defended black King and the tables were turned. He combined attack and defence beautifully to catch the black monarch in a mating net. Gelfand, faced with loss of heavy material, resigned the fierce battle on 38th move.It was vintage Karpov all the way agaisnt Joel Lautier (0.5) of France. The Frenchman seeked complications right from the beginning realising that a slow, positional struggle is Karpov's territory. Karpov did not disappoint him and after a series of attacking and counter attacking vollies, came up with an advantage of pair of bishops.Lautier defended remarkably against the insistent pressure from Karpov's pieces, but was soon short of time. At this moment the World champion caught Lautier in a vice like grip and Lautier was forced to part way with one of his valuable central pawns on 35th move.When he tried to grab Karpov's undef
