Anand Widens Lead At Mexico City
By Arvind Aaron

World No.1 Viswanathan Anand widened his lead to a full point in the FIDE World Chess Championship Tournament being played at Mexico City on Sep 23. In the ninth round, Anand played a 21-move draw with the white pieces against Levon Aronian of Armenia to stretch his lead from half a point to one point.

Anand, Chennai-born, leads the 8-player double all-play-all with 6/9. Five rounds remains to be played. Anand faces Kramnik on Monday with the black pieces and this will be his key game. It is likely to be a Catalan Opening.

Anand opened with his uaual kind pawn and Aronian went for the Marshall attack. After 21 moves Anand offered a draw that was accepted by the Armenian player.

Kramnik played the sharp Modern Benoni as black in an attempt to catch up with Anand and was defeated by his countryman Morozevich.

In an endgame with four rooks, Grischuk prevailed over Gelfand after two of his rooks controlled two available open files. However, Gelfand keeps the clear second position with five points.

If Kramnik is able to retain his title, he is obliged to play Topalov. If anybody else wins the tournament, that winner will face Kramnik in a rematch in 2008. Either way, Kramnik has a rematch next year. This is the first World Championship with so many "if" clauses.

The results (round nine): Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 6 drew Levon Aronian (Arm) 4, Peter Leko (Hun) 4.5 drew Peter Svidler (Rus) 3.5, Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 4 bt Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 4.5, Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 4.5 bt Boris Gelfand (Isr) 5.

Pairing for Monday's round ten (Sep 24): Kramnik v Anand, Svidler v Morozevich, Gelfand v Leko, Aronian v Grischuk.

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