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Anand draws, in sole lead at Linares chess

By IANS

Linares (Spain) : Viswanathan Anand has maintained his lead in the Morelia-Linares Grandmasters chess tournament with a fairly short but not a dull draw against Lev Aronian in the ninth round.

The game ended Friday rather abruptly after 27 moves from a Queen’s Indian where Anand had black pieces.

The draw took Anand to six points, but his full point lead was cut to half with the 17-year-old Magnus Carlsen grinding down veteran Alexei Shirov in a Ruy Lopez lasting 80 moves.

Vassily Ivanchuk gave his sagging morale a boost by beating Peter Leko with black and in the other game Vesselin Topalov drew with Teimour Radjabov.

There are five more rounds to go in the 14-round tournament, which sees eight players clash twice against each other in two legs, one in Morelia, Mexico and another in Linares, Spain.

Anand emerged as the leader after Morelia leg with 4.5 points.

Topalov did not succeed in outmanoeuvring Teimour Radjabov and drew in 54 moves, while the luckless Peter Leko lost yet again, with white against Ivanchuk.

The game of the day was the 80-move effort by Carlsen, who overcame Shirov’s defences to take second place in the table. It was a seven-hour marathon where Carlsen may have opted for surer but longer way to win. Either way it was a complicated game, where Carlsen did a fantastic job.

Results of Round 9:
Carlsen beat Shirov
Aronian drew with Anand
Topalov drew with Radjabov
Leko lost to Ivanchuk.

Standings afterRound 9:
1. Anand (6 points)
2. Carlsen (5.5)
3. Aronian (5)
4. Topalov (4.5)
5. Radjabov, Shirov and Ivanchuk (4 each)
6. Leko (3)

Pairings for Round 10:
Anand vs. Carlsen
Shirov vs. Leko
Ivanchuk vs. Topalov
Radjabov vs. Aronian