Fifth draw for Anand in Chess Grand Slam

Bilbao, Sept 09: India`s Viswanathan Anand continued to search for his first win of the Chess Grand Slam Final being staged here, as he played yet another draw in the sixth round.The world champion, who is back by Tech giant NIIT, Monday drew with Vassily Ivanchuk in 32 moves and took his total to 2.5 points on the traditional points system.

But here in Bilbao with draws fetching one point and wins three, Anand has five, while the leader is young Magnus Carlsen with 11 points from three wins and two draws and one loss. The Ivanchuk-Anand game was a staid draw coming out from a Slav Defence, with Ivanchuk making a token effort to gain advantage and Anand thwarting this effectively for a 32-move draw. Anand`s game has been somewhat subdued leading to the feeling that the world champion is not revealing any of his major preparations that he may have made for the world title match against Vladimir Kramnik next month. Veselin Topalov, who beat Anand in the fifth round, and has 10 points with two wins and four draws, follows Carlsen. Lev Aronian, the only player with two losses, is third with six points, and Anand, Teimour Radjabov and Ivanchuk have five points each. The tournament is a six-player double round robin event, one of the strongest in the history of the game. The scoring system in this tournament is different and experimental. Players get three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for losing a game. For rating purposes the traditional 1-½-0 system will be used. The prize fund for the event is 400,000 Euros, with the winner receiving 150,000 Euros, the second place 70,000 Euros, and so on, with the sixth player getting 30,000 Euros. The sums are unprecedented for an event like this. Only world championships have exceeded the amount. The Topalov-Radjabov clash was more volatile, with the Bulgarian GM looking set to chalk up another victory in Bilbao. But after massive trade-offs after the time control Black had solved all his problems and in fact undertook some tentative attempts to play for a win. The draw came with a repetition at move 73. Carlsen continued his great run with a solid win over Aronian. He sacrificed a pawn, which was part of theory, but then young Carlsen played a novelty which involves a second sacrifice on move 15. It loosely resembled the Gelfand-Kramnik game in Mexico City 2007, but that ended in a draw. The novelty led to Carlsen forcing Aronian`s king to be stuck in the middle. Carlsen got one pawn back and then launched a blistering attack. He wrapped up the game in 32 moves. In the seventh round, Anand will have black pieces against Radjabov, while Carlsen clashes with Ivanchuk and Aronian meets Topalov. Scores after six rounds: Carlsen (11 points); 2. Topalov (10 points); Aronian (6 points); Anand, Radjabov and Ivanchuk (5 points each). IANS