Viswanathan Anand put it across world championship finalist Michael Adams of England to move within striking distance of tournament leader Peter Leko of Hungary in the 12th and penultimate round of Corus Chess tournament in the Netherlands on Saturday.
Anand took his tally to 7.5 points from 12 games in the event and with just one round to go trails Leko by just half a point.
In the final round game slated later on Sunday, Anand will play against Ivan Sokolov of Netehrlands who is currently out of form while Leko has a relatively tough customer in World's best Woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary.
Bulgarian Veselin Topalov bowed out of contention for his maiden title in Corus when he could not beat Leko in a keenly contested game. Topalov with 7 points in his bag slipped to third spot in the event and that's where he is likely to finish.
Anand, knowing well that to be in contention he had to win, played all out for a victory and his first move itself was a just indication of that.
Normally, King pawn has been established as Anand's pet opening move, but in the past it has been widely observed that Adams is well armed to tackle it and perhaps because of this the Indian ace opened his game with the queen pawn.
Adams, apparently surprised by Anand's choice was baffled in the middle game even as he went for Anand's sacrificed exchange. Anand in compensation had a pawn and fantastic pursuits on the queen side that was nurtured well to lead to a won endgame. The game lasted 42 moves.
The other big contest of the day between Toplaov and Leko also incidentally lasted the same numbers of moves but with a varied result.
With white pieces, the Bulgarian left no stones unturned in trying to break the defence of Leko in a Nimzo Indian defence but perfect tactical handling by the tournament leader was enough to salvage the draw.
In the other decisive game, former World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine got the better of Russian Alexander Morozevich. Ponomariov played energetic moves in the middle game to ensure the downfall of his high profile opponent.
Results round 12: Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 7.5) beat Michael Adams (Eng, 6.5); Judit Polgar (Hun, 6.5) beat Ivan Sokolov (Ned, 3); Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 6.5) drew with Loek Van Wely (Ned, 5.5); Lazaro Bruzon (Cub, 6) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 5.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 5.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 6.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 7) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 8); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 4) lost to Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 6).
