Anand Misses Win, Shares Lead
By Arvind Aaron

Winning opportunities come rarely in world championship games. It was one of those rare days with Viswanathan Anand missing a win after doing everything in the opening and middlegame to deserve it. Nevertheless, Anand and Kramnik lead the 8-player World Championship at Mexico City with 2.5/4. Ten rounds remain to be played in this double all-play-all. Monday is a free day and play will resume on Tuesaday.

Facing Morozevich with the black pieces, Anand, 37, came close to a win but faltered on move 55 when he went for a pawn capture with his rook. However, a capture with a pawn led black to a winning advantage. He repeated the position and drew on move 61.

Since becoming world No.1, Anand is playing opening lines with power and selects choices with offer winning chances to the black side as well. One of them is the Sicilian Najdorf as black against 1.e4 and the other is Semi-Slav with the black against 1.d4. This is a clear indication that he wants to win more games with the black pieces. He came close to winning his second straight black game.

So far only four decisive games were recorded. Anand nearly added one more. Leko lost to Aronian after losing a piece for two pawns on the 28th turn. Perhaps, the 100-move drawn encounter against Gelfand from the third round clearly tiring out Leko in this round four game. One advantage for Anand over Kramnik is that he has had a 2-2 colour break so far and Kramnik has played three whites to one black. Colours will even out in the second cycle.

The results (round four): V.Kramnik (Rus) 2.5 drew A.Grischuk (Rus) 2, A.Morozevich (Rus) 2 drew V.Anand (Ind) 2.5, P.Svidler (Rus) 1.5 drew B.Gelfand (Isr) 1.5, L.Aronian (Arm) 2 bt P.Leko (Hun) 1.5. Pairings for Tuesday's round five: Anand v Svidler, Leko v Kramnik, Grischuk v Morozevich, Gelfand v Aronian