Vishwanathan Anand shot into sole lead after an eventful draw against Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the eighth round of the 75th Corus chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands, on Monday.
The other overnight joint leader, GM Loek van Wely of the Netherlands, saw his three-game winning streak end with a loss against former World champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia.
Van Wely slipped to joint second position along with the world's highest rated woman, Judit Polgar of Hungary, and Russian Alexander Grischuk. The trio trail Anand (5.5) by half a point.
Following them another half a point behind is GM Alexei Shirov, who lost to Grischuk in a full-bloodied game.
In the Grandmaster B tournament, GM Koneru Humpy suffered yet another loss, going down to GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany in spectacular fashion. Humpy is now at the bottom of the table with just five more rounds remaining.
GM Zhang Zhong of China consolidated his lead after signing peace with GM Peter Acs of Hungary. Zhang Zhong, 7 points, is 1.5 points adrift of closest rival Daniel Stellwagen (Ned), who achieved his maiden Grandmaster norm after holding GM Friso Nijboer.
For Anand it turned out to be another show where he had to employ his superior defensive skills to thwart his opponent's chances. Kramnik, having already mishandled a couple of promising positions in this event, added another one to his list of "could have been".
The Indian ace opened with the Petroff defence that gave him a victory against Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov in the second round and the opening served him well yesterday too.
The middle game witnessed Kramnik uncorking a fine positional idea and a few exchanges led to a better position for the Russian with his centralised Bishop exerting pressure on the king side.
Anand found some solace after the trade of queens and was just in time to defend against the threats of a menacing looking rook. The draw was agreed to after 58 moves.
After the opening moves of a Grunfeld defence, Van Wely was sitting pretty behind the back pieces. He calculated a brilliant sacrifice and was hoping for the best.
However, with a penchant for complex positions, Karpov received the signals right and just made the right defensive moves. Van Wely fumbled and was eventually outplayed by the legendry champion. Though the game lasted till the 42nd move, the outcome was clear by the 25th move itself.
Grischuk had a very slow start but his gradual progress might spell him as a threat to Anand in the rounds to come.
The Russian star performer added Alexei Shirov to his casualty list after the Spaniard missed a simple tactical trick while trying to outdo his opponent in a famliar variation of the Sicilian Sveshnikov.
Playing white, Grischuk sensed trouble and was quick in countering it with effective moves that netted him an extra piece. Shirov resigned after 32 moves.
Youngest participant Teimour Radjabov continued to impress, outsmarting World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. It was Ponomariov's fourth loss in the tournament.
Radjabov was pushed to the wall in his Kings Indian defence as black but Ponomariov failed to find the right continuation after getting a better position. Blundering his way, Ponomariov called it a day when checkmate was inevitable.
Jan Timman's woeful run continued, going down to Evgeny Bareev while Ivanchuk's similar tale with draws gave him his eighth peace result in as many rounds. Drawing with Ivanchuk was Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria who pressed hard but without success.
Results (round 8):
Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 4) drew Vishwanathan Anand (5.5); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 4.5) lost to Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 5); Anatoly Karpov (Rus, 4) beat Loek Van Wely (Ned, 5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 4) drew Veselin Topalov (Bul, 4); Evgeny Bareev (Rus, 4) beat Jan Timman (Ned, 1.5); Michal Krasenkow (drew Judit Polgar (Hun, 5); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 2.5) lost to Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 4).
Standings after round 8:
1 - Anand 5.5
2-4 - Van Wely, Grischuk, Polgar 5.0 each
5 - Shirov 4.5
6-11 - Ivanchuk, Karpov, Kramnik, Topalov, Radjabov, Bareev 4.0 each
12 - Krasenkow 3.0
13 - Ponomariov 2.5
14 - Timman 1.5.
B tournament:
Peter Acs (Hun, 3) drew Zhang Zhong (Chn, 6.5); Friso Nijboer (Ned, 5) drew Daniel Stellwagen (Ned, 5.5); Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 5) beat Koneru Humpy (2.5); Ian Rogers (Aus, 4.5) drew John Van der Wiel (Ned, 3); Jonny Hector (Swe, 4.5) drew Harmen Jonkman (Ned, 2.5); Dennis De Vreugt (Ned, 4) lost to Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus, 3); Viktorija Cmilyte (Ltu, 2.5) beat Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 4).
Standings after round 8: 1. Zhong 7.0; 2. Stellwagen 5.5; 3-4. Nijboer, Naiditsch 5.0 each; 5-6. Rogers, Hector 4.5 each; 7-8. De Vreugt, Karjakin 4.0 each; 9-11. Acs, Van der Wiel, Kosteniuk 3.0 each; 12-14. Cmilyte, Jonkman, Humpy 2.5 each.
The moves:
V Anand v/s V Kramnik
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. c4 Nb4 9. Be2 O-O 10. Nc3 Bf5 11. a3 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Nc6 13. Re1 Re8 14.cxd5 Qxd5 15. Bf4 Rac8 16. h3 Bf6 17. Nh2 Qa5 18. Bd2 Rcd8 19. Bf3 h6 20. Ng4 Bxg4 21. hxg4 Bg5 22. Bxg5 hxg5 23. Rxe8+ Rxe8 24. Qd3 Nd8 25. g3 c6 26. Kg2 Ne6 27. Rb1 Re7 28. c4 Qc7 29. Rh1 Nf8 30. Qf5 Rd7 31. d5 cxd5 32. Bxd5 Qd8 33. a4 b6 34. a5 bxa5 35. Ra1 Qf6 36. Rxa5 Rc7 37. Qxf6 gxf6 38. Kf3 Ne6 39. Ke3 Kf8 40. f4 gxf4+ 41. gxf4 Nc5 42. Rb5 a6 43. Rb8+ Ke7 44.Ra8 Kd6 45. Kf3 Ke7 46. Kg3 Rd7 47. Rc8 Nd3 48. Be4 Nb4 49. c5 Rd8 50. Rc7+ Rd7 51. Rc8 Rd8. Draw agreed.