Anand Suffers First Defeat At Nice
By Arvind Aaron

World champion Viswanathan Anand suffered his first defeat in the 17th Amber Chess Tournament when he lost to his former trainer Peter Leko of Hungary in the fourth round at Nice on March 18. Anand drew the blindfold game with white and lost the rapid game with the black pieces.

Seven rounds or 14 games remain to be played in this 12-player double all-play-all. Three players, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria are in the lead with five points from eight games. Anand is in fourth place with 4.5 points. Anand is in second place in rapid chess on 2.5/4 and in tied fifth place in blindfold.

There are three titles to be won at Nice. Combined or the Amber Tournament, then the blindfold and rapid titles. The blindfold is played with 25 minutes a side plus a twenty second increment per move and the rapid chess with 10 second increment per move.

In the blindfold encounter, Leko played black and drew with the Caro-Kann defence. Leko's idea involved in fracturing his own pawn structure but it proved hard for white to exploit it and they drew a rook and minor piece ending with repetition in 33 moves.

In the rapid game, Anand played the Sicilian defence as black. Leko sacrificed a piece for two pawns and an attack against the black king. After black's 22nd move, white obtained a big advantage to win the game. Having to play an exchange down and with a centralised king, Anand chose to resign.

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

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

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Home                                                       Published on 19^th  March, 2008