Anand crushes Wang Yue, back in contention

Nanjing (China): World Champion Viswanathan Anand struck back with vengeance and outclassed Wang Yue of

China with black pieces in the sixth round of the Pearl Spring Chess tournament here. With his second win apart from a loss and three draw, the Indian ace moved within striking distance of the top honour with four rounds still to come in this super tournament being played on a double round-robin basis between six players. Anand was the lone winner on the day when the other two games ended in draws. Etienne Bacrot of France played out an easy draw with Magnus Carlsen of Norway, while Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan also did not give many chances to former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and signed peace. Carlsen remained in sole lead on 4.5 points from his six outings in the tournament following a draw with Bacrot, who inched himself up to four points and remained just a half point behind the leader. Anand remained sole third but the difference is what matters from the previous round as the Indian ace is now just a half point behind second placed Bacrot and only one point behind Carlsen. Gashimov took his tally to 2.5 points after drawing with Topalov and remains fourth, while Topalov is now clear fifth on the standings on two points, a half point ahead of Wang Yue. Anand played a gem of a game to beat the local hopeful. Up against a Catalan opening, Anand went for a topical set up and did not find any difficulty in retaining the dynamic balance he was looking for. Wang Yue went for an early trade of queens, after which Anand found a nice stroke to win a pawn after an inaccuracy by the Chinese and the resulting endgame just needed precise technique. Anand remained in command for the remainder of the game to force resignation after 51 moves. Carlsen went for the Queen`s Indian against Bacrot and could not really find real chances. Bacrot is going through the tournament of his life and he probably did not want to spoil it with risking anything against the World number one. The Queens got traded on move 12 and Carlsen had to defend with his twin knights against two Bishops in the ensuing endgame. However, there were no real chances as the postmortem showed and the game was drawn after 48 moves. Meanwhile, Veselin Topalov`s hunt for an elusive victory continued for a week now in Nanjing. The Bulgarian could do little against a king pawn opening by Gashimov. It was a Caro Kann defence by Topalov, wherein Gashimov held a small advantage out of the opening that was neutralised by the time the endgame arose. PTI