Viswanathan Anand had an eventful 1-1 draw with Russian Alexander Morozevich, winning the rapid tie but losing the blindfold, to slip to joint third with 3.5 points after the third round in the 12th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Monte Carlo.
Linares champion Peter Leko of Hungary maintained his top position in the overall standings despite settling for two draws with compatriot Zoltan Almasi. Leko now has 4.5 points in his kitty from six games and is followed by Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, on 4 points.
Anand shares the third spot in overall standings with Boris Gelfand of Israel, Evgeny Bareev of Russia and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.
In the rapid standings, Anand shares the second spot with Leko and Morozevich. But his form is much less than desired in the blindfold, where he is placed seventh.
The Indian stalwart faced an early surprise from the defending champion in the blindfold game. Morozevich had started off with two losses in this section but bounced back in startling fashion.
Anand played the Caro Kann defence with black pieces and faced a rather harmless opening. The fireworks started in the middle game when Morozevich sacrificed a pawn to open the lines on the queen side. Thereafter, even the trade of queens could not help Anand to maintain the positional balance.
Despite a pawn down, white had a firm grip on the position and Morozevich finished in style with a piece sacrifice to march his pawns to glory. Anand resigned on the 35th move.
In Rapid chess, Anand struck back with vengeance to level the scores. The opening was a Petroff defence and Anand uncorked a finely crafted tactical stroke on the 14th move to win a rook for a knight.
Showing excellent technique, Anand gave back the extra material at the right moment to emerge a pawn plus and romped home in 69 moves.
Leko found Almasi a tough nut to crack in both forms of the game. Their first duel in blindfold lasted till the 70th move with Leko struggling in the middle game. The rapid game between the two ended in peace in 38 moves.
Kramnik maintained his all-win record in the blindfold games when he took advantage of a terrible blunder by his nemesis Alexei Shirov, who played black.
The game had just entered an exciting stage when Shirov forgot about his queen on the edge of the board and found it trapped on the 19th turn. In the rapid game, however, the Spaniard drew after fighting it out till the very end.
Results:
Blindfold: Alexander Morozevich (Rus) beat Viswanthan Anand; Boris Gelfand (Isr) beat Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr); Loek van Wely (Ned) beat Ljubomir Ljubojevic (Yug); Zoltan Almasi (Hun) drew Peter Leko (Hun); Veselin Topalov (Bul) beat Evgeny Bareev (Rus); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) beat Alexei Shirov (Esp).
Rapid: Anand beat Morozevich; Ivanchuk beat Gelfand; Ljubojevic drew van Wely; Leko drew Almasi; Bareev beat Topalov; Shirov drew Kramnik.
Standings (after round 3):
Blindfold: 1. Kramnik 3.0; 2. Leko 2.5; 3-6. Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Van Wely, Topalov 2.0 each; 7. Anand 1.5; 8-9. Morozevich, Bareev 1.0 each; 10-11. Almasi, Ljubojevic 0.5 each; 12. Shirov 0.
Rapid: 1. Bareev 2.5; 2-4. Anand, Leko, Morozevich 2.0 each; 5-7. Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Almasi 1.5 each; 8-12. Van Wely, Ljubojevic, Topalov, Shirov, Kramnik 1.0 each.
Overall standings: 1. Leko 4.5; 2. Kramnik 4.0; 3-6. Anand, Gelfand, Bareev, Ivanchuk 3.5 each; 7-9. Morozevich, Topalov, Van Wely 3.0 each; 10. Almasi 2.0; 11. Ljubojevic
1.5; 12. Shirov 1.0.
The moves (Blindfold):
A Morozevich v/s V Anand
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. c3 Bf5 6. Qb3 Qd7 7. Nf3 a6 8. Nbd2 e6 9. h3 h6 10. Be2 Nf6 11. Ne5 Nxe5 12. Bxe5 Be7 13. c4 O-O 14. c5 Qc6 15. Qg3 Qa4 16. O-O Qc2 17. Rfd1 Qxb2 18. Bd3 Qc3 19. Bxf5 Qxg3 20. Bxg3 exf5 21. Rab1 Ra7 22. Rb6 g5 23. Bd6 Bxd6 24. Rxd6 Kg7 25. Nf3 Re8 26. Ne5 Re7 27. f3 Nh5 28. Rxd5 Nf4 29. Rd7 b5 30. Rxa7 Rxa7 31. d5 Re7 32. c6 Rxe5 33. c7 Re8 34. d6 Ne6 35. Re1 black resigned.
Rapid:
V Anand v/s A Morozevich
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Re1 Bf5 9. c4 c6 10. Qc2 Bg6 11. c5 Bc7 12. Nc3 f5 13. Qb3 Rf7 14. Ng5 b6 15. Bxe4 fxe4 16. Nxf7 Bxf7 17. cxb6 axb6 18. Ne2 Qf6 19. Be3 Nd7 20.Rac1 Nf8 21. Rf1 Ng6 22. Qc3 Be8 23. f3 Qd6 24. Ng3 exf3 25. Rxf3 Rxa2 26.Nf1 Ra8 27. Bf2 Nf4 28. Re1 Bh5 29. Rxf4 Qxf4 30. Bg3 Qf7 31. Qxc6 Ra7 32. Bxc7 Rxc7 33. Qxb6 h6 34. Ng3 Rb7 35. Qd8+ Kh7 36. Rf1 Qe8 37.Qxe8 Bxe8 38. Rf2 Kg6 39. Ne2 Kg5 40. Nc3 Bc6 41. Rd2 h5 42. Kf2 h4 43. Ke3 Kg4 44. Rf2 g5 45. Kd3 Rb8 46. Nd1 Rb3+ 47. Nc3 Bb5+ 48. Kc2 Bc4 49. Rf3 Rb4 50. Nd1 Kh5 51. Ne3 Ba2 52. Rf6 Rxd4 53. Rh6+ Kxh6 54. Nf5+ Kh5 55. Nxd4 Bc4 56. b4 Kg4 57. Kd2 Kf4 58. b5 Bxb5 59. Nxb5 h3 60. g4 Kxg4 61. Ke3 Kh4 62.Nd4 Kg4 63. Ne2 Kf5 64. Kf3 Ke5 65. Kg4 d4 66. Ng1 d3 67. Nxh3 d2 68. Nf2 Kd4 69. Nd1 black resigned.
