Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands), Jan 23 (IANS) Viswanathan Anand played a quick and safe draw with Boris Gelfand but still moved up as the leader Magnus Carlsen blundered and lost his ninth round game at the 70th Corus Grandmasters chess tournament here Tuesday.
The draw took Anand’s tally to five points. He is half a point behind Carlsen and Lev Aronian. Anand shares the third spot in the elite Group A with Teimour Radjabov, Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik, who lost to Veselin Topalov in the ninth round.
For Anand it has been a great move upwards after losing his opening game against Radjabov. Since then he has won two games and drawn five.
In group B, Pentala Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy drew against each other in the ninth round.
In Group C, Mark van der Werf held India’s 15-year-old Parimarjan Negi to a draw.
While Hairkrishna is tied for fourth place Humpy is tenth in Group B. In Group C, Negi is tied for third place. Negi’s rise is also phenomenal as he began with two losses.
Anand and Gelfand repeated their game from the Mexico world championship tournament. The Israeli GM tried to improve with 11.Re1 but the world champion did not have any special problems. Playing with black in a Catalan Opening, Anand forced white to hold the balance. After the game, Boris was pleased with his accurate defensive manoeuvre that equalised and so a draw was agreed upon on the very next move.
Levon Aronian is the joint leader of Group A after drawing Pavel Eljanov whilst Magnus Carlsen was shocked by Peter Leko. The major game of the day was Topalov’s victory over Kramnik.
Topalov gave the press conference of the day and attributed his win against Kramnik to a three-year-old novelty 12.Nxf7! that was found and been developed by Ivan Cheparinov. He said he didn’t have any involvement in its creation.
Topalov has been waiting for the right moment to unleash this novelty. Cheparinov was in the press conference later on and he said that some of the lines go to move 40.
Topalov and Kramnik, who have a bitter relationship, did not shake hands, but neither was penalised for this breach of tournament rules. Since neither player offered to shake hands, the question of a refusal did not arise! They simply ignored each other, to the extent that even eye contact was studiously avoided.
In group B, Hari and Humpy played a 28-move draw in Gruenfeld. Hari now has five points in tied fourth place, while Humpy has four points in tied 10th. Sergei Movsesian leads with 6.5 points and Etienne Bacrot is half a point behind at six.
In Group C, Negi, also playing black, drew in a Gruenfeld in 56 moves. He has 5.5 points and shares third place with Friso Nijboer. The leader is Fabiano Caruana with seven points. Dmitri Reinderman is second with 6.5 points.
There are four more rounds in the tournament.
Results and standings
Group A:
Results: Round 9
Michael Adams beat Loek van Wely
Levon Aronian drew with Pavel Eljanov
Vassily Ivanchuk drew with Shak. Mamedyarov
Judit Polgar drew with Teimour Radjabov
Veselin Topalov beat Vladimir Kramnik
Boris Gelfand drew with Vishwanathan Anand
Peter Leko beat Magnus Carlsen
Standings after Round 9:
1. L. Aronian and M. Carlsen 5.5 points
3. V. Kramnik, T. Radjabov, M. Adams and V. Anand 5 points
7. S. Mamedyarov, V. Ivanchuk, V. Topalov and P. Leko 4.5 points
11. J. Polgar and L. van Wely 4 points
13. P. Eljanov and B. Gelfand 3 points
Group B:
Results: Round 9
Sergei Movsesian drew with Nigel Short
Jan Smeets lost to Wouter Spoelman
Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Daniël Stellwagen
Erwin L’Ami beat Hou Yifan
Koneru Humpy drew with P. Harikrishna
Gabriel Sargissian drew with Etienne Bacrot
Ivan Cheparinov beat Michal Krasenkow
Standings after Round 9
1. S. Movsesian 6.5 points
2. E. Bacrot 6 points
3. N. Short 5.5 points
4. P. Harikrishna, I. Nepomniachtchi and E. L’Ami 5 points
7. D. Stellwagen, J. Smeets and I. Cheparinov 4.5 points
10. H. Koneru and M. Krasenkow 4 points
12. Y. Hou 3.5 points
13. G. Sargissian 3 points
14. W. Spoelman 2 points
Group C:
Results: Round 9
Peng Zhaoqin drew with Irina Krush
Mark van der Werf drew with Parimarjan Negi
Dennis Ruijgrok lost to Friso Nijboer
Dimitri Reinderman beat Anna Ushenina
Efstratios Grivas lost to Li Shilong
Fabiano Caruana beat John van der Wiel
Pontus Carlsson beat Arik Braun
Standings after Round 9
1. F. Caruana 7 points
2. D. Reinderman 6.5 points
3. F. Nijboer and P. Negi 5.5 points
5. A. Braun and J. van der Wiel 5 points
7. M. van der Werf, E. Grivas and P. Carlsson 4.5 points
10. S. Li 4 points
11. A. Ushenina and I. Krush 3.5 points
13. Z. Peng 2.5 points
14. D. Ruijgrok 1.5 points