Viswanathan Anand's winning spree was finally halted by last year's joint-winner Alexander Morozevich as the Russian proved equal to the Indian ace in both blindfold and rapid games in the sixth round of the 14th Amber chess tournament at the Monte Carlo Grand in Monaco.
Despite his first drawn result, Anand increased his lead to a staggering 3 points after the blindfold games finished and the lead is likely to at least remain at 2.5 points even though three games in the rapid section were still in progress at the time of going to press.
The Indian stalwart is, in fact, in sole lead in all the three sections - rapid, blindfold and combined - of this unique event that carries a total prize pool of Euros 1,93,250.
Anand, who scored victories in first five mini-matches here showed no complacency in handling Morozevich, who has been a star performer here in the last three editions.
The Russian, known the world over for his uncompromising chess, was in full swing in the blindfold game as he went for an audacious variation with black pieces in the French defence.
Anand secured a better position after the dust subsided but in the middle game, a cautious and pragmatic approach by him led the game to a draw after 38 moves.
Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia incidentally took the same number of moves to down compatriot Evgeny Bareev. Kramnik's party in the blidnfold, it may be recalled, was spoiled by Anand earlier in the tournament but after this victory, he again came within striking distance of Anand as the lead gap in this section between him and Anand now remains at a full point.
Interestingly enough, Kramnik also faced the French defence with his white pieces but Bareev obviously was in no mood for speculative play and could not really stand any chance against precision of his higher rated opponent.
In another twist to the tale of this year's tournament, Linares joint-winner Veslein Topalov of Bulgaria finally struck form and downed Corus champion Peter Leko of Hungary in the Blindfold. Even though Leko kept the records intact by getting a revenge in the rapid game, the one point against and off-form opponent might just prove costly for him in the overall standings.
Results round 6 blindfold:
Veselin Topalov (Bul) beat Peter Leko Hun); Viswanathan Anand (Ind) drew with Alexander Morozevich; Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) beat Evgeny Bareev (Rus); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr); exei Shirov (Esp) beat Loek Van Wely (Ned); Francisco Pons Vallejo (Esp) beat Peter Svi dler (Rus).
Rapid result: Leko beat Topalov; Morozevich drew with Anand; Bareev drew with Kramnik; other games in progress.
Blindfold standings: 1. Anand 5; 2. Kramnik 4; 3-5. Ivanchuk, Svidler, Morozevich 3.5 each; 6-8. Vallejo, Gelfand, Leko 3 each; 9. Shirov 2.5; 10-11. Topalov, Van Wely 2 each; 12. Bareev 1.
Combined standings Round 5 + Round 6 Blindfold: 1. Anand 9.5; 2-4. Svidler, Morozevich, Ivanchuk 6.5 each; 5-6. Leko, Kramnik 6 each; 7. Gelfand 5.5; 8-9. Vallejo, Shirov 4.5 each; 10. Van Wely 3.5; 11-12. Bareev, Topalov 3 each.
