Viswanathan Anand slipped to the third place after a draw with Russia's Garry Kasparov in a game of honour in the 13th and penultimate round of the Linares Super Grandmasters chess tournament on Wednesday.
Kasparov assured himself of at least a shared first place in the 22nd edition of the tournament after the draw with the Indian ace as he took his tally to an unassailable eight points out of a possible 11 in the seven-player double round-robin event being played under classical time control.
Following the draw Anand slipped to third spot as Bulgarian Veselen Topalov stamped his authority over local star Francisco Pons Vallejo in an almost one-sided affair.
As things stand, with just one round come to come in this Euros 297,000 prize-money tournament, Kasparov, with 8/11, is almost assured of title provided he does not lose to Topalov in the final round.
Anand, on 6.5 points, is certain for a third place finish come what may in his game against Briton Michael Adams in the final round while Corus champion Peter Leko of Hungary is almost certain to finish fourth after his game with FIDE World champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov ended in a draw.
Adams, in all likelihood, is likely to finish fifth while Vallejo will try to finish ahead of Kasimdzhanov after the last round on Thursday.
Anand's game against Kasparov lasted just about half an hour as the game was still in the stage of infancy when the point was shared. Reason for that was apparently simple as Kasparov was happy and content with a draw with 1.5 points lead to back him in last two rounds.
It was a Petroff defence that got Anand an easy half point as black.
"We were both tired coming in to this game and with this draw Kasparov probably wins the tournament. As for me, in Petroff you really don't try to win a game. And also I have pretty nerve-wrecking game yesterday and I was rather cautious," Anand said in the post match conference.
The day provided just one decisive game that came from Topalov. The Bulgarian had a clear cut aim in his game and succeeded thanks to Vallejo's insipid play in the opening as well as the middle game he succeeded even after a near harmless opening set up as black.
"I just played as the position demanded," Topalov said after winning. As it happened in the game, Vallejo fell under tremendous time pressure and blundered away his chances to go down rather tamely. The other game of the day also had little for the spectators as Kasimdzhanov was happy to get a half point with his whit pieces. Employing the Rossolimo attack as white, the Uzbek got nothing and following copy-book play by Leko the draw was a just result in only 24 moves.
Results penultimate round: Garry Kasparov (Rus, 8/11) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 6.5/11); Francisco Pons Vallejo (Esp, 3.5/11) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul, 7/11); Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 4/12) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 5.5/11); Michael Adams (Eng, 4.5/11) had a bye.
