Kramnik Wrests Sole Lead

By Arvind Aaron

Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia moved into sole lead in the Tal Memorial at Moscow on Nov 8. Kramnik who lives in Moscow defeated countryman Peter Svidler of St Petersburg with the white pieces to move into sole lead with three points from four rounds.

World champion Viswanathan Anand remained quiet with a draw from his third black game in round four. He shares the second-third place with Levon Aronian on 2.5 points. Anand drew comfortably with the black against Ponomariov. Anand gave up a pawn to enter a dead level opposite colour bishop ending.

Anand is the only player to play the same opening in all his four rounds. He played the Grunfeld defence three times with black and Svidler played it with black against him in the third round. Anand won round three to break the jinx of draws in the event. Soon, Kramnik also won against Morozevich after Aronian put it across Leko. With his win number two in a row, Kramnik has taken an early lead.

Anand played some deft moves on turn 24 and 25 to exploit the black weakness and win against Svidler in round three. Anand has a clean 1/1 score with white and still has three more white games to come.

On the health of the players, Carlsen is reported to be suffering from fever and Kramnik is also not well. Kramnik is playing at 2964! This super category 21 event is a 10-player single all-play-all with an average rating of 2764.

The results (round four): V. Kramnik (Rus) 3 bt P. Svidler (Rus) 1, M. Carlsen (Nor) 2 drew with L. Aronian (Arm) 2.5, R. Ponomariov (Ukr) 2 drew with V. Anand (Ind) 2.5, P. Leko (Hun) 1.5 drew with V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 2, A. Morozevich (Rus) 1.5 lost to B. Gelfand (Isr) 2.

Results of round three: Anand bt Svidler, Aronian bt Leko, Morozevich lost to Kramnik, Gelfand drew Carlsen, Ivanchuk drew Ponomariov.

 

More News