By IANS
Nice (France) : After a day’s rest, Viswanathan Anand will take on Alexander Morozevich in the fifth round of the 17th Melody Amber Blindfold and rapid chess championships here.
The Indian Grandmaster, who led the field for the first three rounds, dropped back following a loss to Hungarian Peter Leko in the fourth round.
With 12 players in the fray, there is still a long way to go, but Anand has always been the kind to pile up points early on, especially in rapid, which is his forte, and then build on it.
It is a tightly packed field with three players Vesselin Topalov, Lev Aronian and Vassily Ivanchuk, who celebrated his 37th birthday earlier, sharing the lead at five points each.
Anand has 4.5 points in sole fourth.
Pairings for fifth round: Topalov-Kramnik; Leko-Mamedyarov; Morozevich-Anand; Carlsen-Gelfand; Ivanchuk-Aronian; Van Wely-Karjakin
Standings after four rounds:
Topalov, Aronian and Ivanchuk 5 points each;
Anand 4.5 points;
Leko, Carlsen and Kramnik 4 points each;
Van Wely, Mamedyarov and Karjakin 3.5 points each;
Gelfand and Morozevich 3 points each.