A dull draw by former world champion Viswanathan Anand, a brilliant victory by top seed Garry Kasparov of Russia and a shocking loss for Spaniard Alexei Shirov marked the highlights of the 13th and penultimate round of the Linares Super Grandmasters chess tournament now underway.
Kasparov (7 points) regained the sole lead after a thorough drubbing of World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov and is now a clear point ahead of the young Ukrainian.
Anand, GM Michael Adams of England and GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine are locked in a tie for the third position with 5.5 points each in their kitty.
The outcome of the tournament is almost decided as Kasparov plays Shirov in the last against whom he has an enviable record in head to head encounters.
Anand's draw against Adams left a feeling of deja vu amongst the followers of the game. It was a near replica of an earlier game in the tournament played between Kasparov and Adams where Kasparov had come up triumphs following a tactical oversight by the Englishman.
The players followed the same game until the 26th move when Adams deviated and produced a safer option than in his game against Kasparov. Many were shocked to see Anand repeating the same game.
Anand, who had probably worked up an idea in the later stages of the game, was in for a surprise and could not work out anything that would have yielded an advantage. On the 27th move the draw was agreed to.
In other hard fought games, Sudhakar Babu was lucky to draw a marathon 78-move game with GM Alexander Fominyh while former National junior champion and IM Norm holder Mahesh Chandran fought gallantly to hold top seed GM Pavel Kotsur of Kazakistan to a creditable draw. Bureau Report