After loss to his old nemesis Gata Kamsky, Viswanathan Anand bounced back with a vengeance to crash through the defenses of former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the fourth round of the Mtel Masters Chess tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria.
With his fourth decisive game on the trot, Anand also ensured that Russian-turned-American Kamsky, who cruised to a relatively quick victory over former Russian champion Peter Svidler, did not increase his lead.
The other game of the category-20 super tournament between Etienne Bacrot of France and world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria ended in a draw.
Kamsky took his tally to an enviable score of 3.5 points while Anand remained on his toes with 3 points in his kitty in the 10-round event.
Svidler, despite the loss, retained his third spot in the standings on two points while Topalov, with his third draw in four rounds apart from a lone defeat against Anand, was fourth on 1.5 points.
The loss proved quite costly for Topalov as he now shares the last spot along with Bacrot in the six-players double round-robin tournament.
Anand was at his technical best against Ponomariov, who suffered his second defeat in the event. The Ukrainian adopted the Caro Kann defense as black against the Indian ace and could only manage a slightly inferior endgame after both players blitzed out the opening moves.
The game witnessed a flurry of exchanges early in the middle game and the queens too were off the board by the 17th move itself. There on Anand was a treat to watch as he first found a brilliant plan that apparently dented his pawn structure beyond repairs but at the same time left enough holes in Ponomariov's position.
With Anand's rook calling the shots after further exchanges, Ponomariov was just left watching the Indian perform the demolition act as Anand nonchalantly put his Bishop en-prise before knocking down a couple of black pawns in the endgame. Ponomariov's counter play bid never materialised and he resigned on his 57th move.
If Anand showed his technical prowess, Kamsky proved that he is back in the competitive chess at the top level with another startling victory. Svidler was on the receiving end against the former world championship finalist who cashed in on an apparently simply blunder in the middle game.
The opening was a Sicilian Scheveningen and Svidler had a tenable position in the middle game he missed a tactical shot and blundered on the 15th move.
Kamsky got a huge positional advantage soon and came up with an exchange sacrifice on his 21st turn to leave the Russian hopeless. The game lasted just 24 moves.
Topalov played the Nimzo Indian defense and had little troubles negotiating with his black pieces after Bacrot chose to fianchetto his King's Bishop in the opening.
The pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and soon an endgame with Bishops of opposite colours was on board with chances for neither player.
The tournament rules indicate that the draw offers are banned here but the position was a dead draw and the result was announced after the chief arbiter was consulted.