Anand, Carlsen Trade Victories
By Arvind Aaron

White pieces proved superior in the round seven match between World Champion Viswanathan Anand and teenaged sensation Magnus Carlsen of Norway. After Anand scored with white in the blindfold game, Carlsen rebounded in the rapid to level the scores at 1-1 in the 17th Amber Chess Tournament at Nice on March 22.

Anand keeps his clear second place with eight points from 14 games or seven rounds. Levon Aronian of Armenia has established a one point lead with nine points after he defeated Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria 1.5-0.5.

Mid-way through the session, there was some good news for Anand fans as the 1969-born Indian had joined leader Aronian in the lead at 8/13. However, in the rapid session on Saturday, Anand lost and Aronian won.

In the blindfold, Anand faced an Alekhine defence from Carlsen and did better with white than he did against Mamedyarov earlier in the event. He used a passed pawn to win a knight and made easy work of the youngster.

In the tactical rapid encounter, Carlsen started and ended the fireworks. Though Anand did well in the middle, he got a lost rook ending and suffered a costly defeat in rapid. Anand is the defending champion in rapid chess segment. Anand is in joint second place in blindfold, rapid and in clear second place in the combined standings.

Morozevich leads the blindfold section by a full point while Aronian leads the rapid section by a wide 1.5 points. Four rounds remain to be played in this 12-player double all-play-all.

The round seven results (blindfold): Morozevich bt Ivanchuk, Kramnik drew with Van Wely, Leko drew with Gelfand, Mamedyarov drew with Karjakin, Topalov drew with Aronian, Anand bt Carlsen.

The round seven results (rapid): Ivanchuk drew with Morozevich, Van Wely drew with Kramnik, Gelfand drew with Leko, Karjakin drew with Mamedyarov, Aronian bt Topalov, Carlsen bt Anand.

 

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Home                                                       Published on 24^th  March, 2008