World Cup champion Viswanathan Anand scored a 1.5-0.5 victory over Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine to regain the joint second spot after the fourth round in the 12th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Monte Carlo.
Hungarian Grandmaster Peter Leko maintained his sole lead after drawing 1-1 against top seed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.
Leko has 5.5 points and is a half point adrift of nearest rivals Anand, Kramnik, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Alexander Morozevich of Russia.
Anand's victory came in the Rapid game after he drew the Blindfold played earlier in the day. The full point took him to joint lead in the Rapid section along with Morozevich and his compatriot Evgeny Bareev, all having three points from four games.
Kramnik maintained his stronghold in the Blindfold and leads with 3.5 points.
Interestingly, overall leader Leko shares the second spot in this section and fourth in Rapid.
Anand was in joint second position after the second round but slipped to one rank after drawing 1-1 with Morozevich in the third.
Ivanchuk, who turned 34 yesterday, went for wild complications in the Blindfold but this failed to achieve anything substantial against the Queen's Indian defence employed by Anand with black pieces.
As Ivanchuk went for a variation already employed by Gelfand against Anand in the first round, the Indian ace made a pre-planned deviation on the eighth move forcing Ivanchuk to have a long think.
The result was another complicated feast for the audience as Ivanchuk sacrificed an exchange on the 12th move. Anand came up with brilliant tactics thereafter but the trade of queens on the 16th move made the position simpler and the draw was agreed to on move 27.
The Rapid game was Anand's cup of tea and he played decisively right from the beginning. Not wanting to enter the Marshall Gambit, Anand chose closed Ruy Lopez and masterminded a fine attacking plan from a dynamically balanced position.
Ivanchuk miscalculated his tactical chances and ended up an exchange down for very little counter play. Anand sealed his win with the trade of queens on move 38 that forced Ivanchuk's resignation.
Leko and Kramnik fought two theoretical battles that ended in draws after accurate play by both sides. In the Blindfold game, Leko's tricky idea in the Sveshnikov was met with precision by Kramnik. Later Leko confided that it was taken from the game of International Master Neelotpal Das of India.
Kramnik had some chances in the Rapid but the nature of the position was so closed that Leko found his counter chances first in the centre and then on kingside. Not very desperate for a victory, Kramnik settled for peace after making his 36th move.
Today is the first of two scheduled rest days.
Results (round 4):
Blindfold: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew Viswanathan Anand; Peter Leko (Hun) drew Vladimir Kramnik (Rus); Evgeny Bareev (Rus) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp); Zoltan Almasi (Hun) beat Veselin Topalov (Bul); Ljubomir Ljubojevic (Yug) lost to Alexander Morozevich (Rus); Boris Gelfand (Isr) beat Loek van Wely (Ned).
Rapid: Anand beat Ivanchuk; Kramnik drew Leko; Shirov drew Bareev; Topalov beat Almasi; Morozevich beat Ljubojevic; Van Wely drew Gelfand.
Standings (after round 4):
Blindfold: 1. Kramnik 3.5; 2-3. Gelfand, Leko 3 each; 4. Ivanchuk 2.5; 5-8. Anand, Van Wely, Morozevich, Topalov 2 each; 9. Almasi 1.5; 10-11. Bareev, Shirov 1; 12. Ljubojevic 0.5.
Rapid: 1-3. Anand, Bareev, Morozevich 3 each; 4. Leko 2.5; 5-6. Gelfand, Topalov 2 each; 7-11. Shirov, Van Wely, Kramnik, Almasi, Ivanchuk 1.5 each; 12. Ljubojevic 1.
Overall Standings: 1. Leko 5.5; 2-5. Anand, Kramnik, Gelfand, Morozevich 5.0 each; 6-8. Ivanchuk, Bareev, Topalov 4.0; 9. Van Wely 3.5; 10. Almasi 3.0; 11. Shirov 2.5; 12. Ljubojevic 1.5.
The moves:
Blindfold: Vassily Ivanchuk v/s V Anand
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Qb3 d5 6. cxd5 Qxd5 7. Qc2 Nc6 8. Nc3 Nb4 9. Qd1 Qf5 10. Bf4 Nc2+ 11. Kd2 Nxa1 12. Qa4+ b5 13. Qxa6 Bb4 14. Qc6+ Kf8 15. e4 Qxe4 16. Qxe4 Nxe4+ 17. Ke3 Nxc3 18. bxc3 Bxc3 19. Bxb5 Rb8 20. Kd3 Bb2 21. Bc4 Ke7 22. Rb1 Rb7 23. Ne5 Rb6 24. Nc6+ Rxc6 25. Rxb2 Rb6 26. Re2 Rb1 27. d5 draw agreed.
Rapid: V Anand v/s V Ivanchuk
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3 Bb7 9. d3 Re8 10. a3 h6 11. Nc3 Bf8 12. Ba2 Nd4 13. Nh2 d5 14. exd5 Nxd5 15. Ng4 Nf4 16. Ne4 Ng6 17. c3 Ne6 18. Qf3 Rb8 19. g3 h5 20. Nh2 h4 21. Qf5 Bd5 22. Bxd5 Qxd5 23. Nf3 Rbd8 24. gxh4 Qxd3 25. Qg4 Nc5 26. Bg5 Nxe4 27. Rxe4 Rd6 28. h5 Nf4 29. Re3 f5 30. Qh4 Ne2+ 31. Kf1 Qd5 32. Kxe2 f4 33. Bxf4 exf4 34. Rxe8 Qd3+ 35. Ke1 Qxf3 36. Qe7 Rf6 37. h6 Qg2 38. Qxg7+ black resigned.
