Draws Rule Bilbao

By Arvind Aaron


Draws visited Grand Slam Final Bilbao and all three games of round five ended in peace. All games ending in draw is happening for the second time.

Those in the upper half of the standings had the black pieces and they were content with draws.

At the half-way stage of the six player category 21 tournament, Veselin Topalov leads with nine points from five rounds. Anand is tied for the fourth to sixth places with four points with four draws and one defeat.

Carlsen gave perpetual checks to draw Anand with the black pieces in 36 moves from a Schleimann/Jaenisch Gambit variation of the Ruy Lopez. Anand lost an exchange and then won the same to enter a queen ending when checks happened.

Similarly, Aronian was happy to repeat and draw Radjabov in 34 moves with the black pieces in a Scotch game.

The longest game of the day saw a pawn locked minor piece ending emerge from the Ivanchuk v Topalov board. They also shared points on the 44th turn.

The results (round five): Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 4 drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul) 9, Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 3 drew with Levon Aronian (Arm) 6, Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 4 drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 8.


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Home                                                 Published on 08^th September, 2008