World Rapid champion Viswanathan Anand drew with Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in the 9th round of the 22nd Linares super Grandmasters chess tournament in Linares.
World's top rated Garry Kasparov stretched his lead to a full point over Topalov with a finely crafted victory over FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan.
The other game of the day was an exciting draw between Corus champion Peter Leko of Hungary and Brit Michael Adams.
Anand could not do much against Topalov who showed controlled aggression with his white pieces. Playing the Petroff defence, the Indian made his peaceful intentions clear right from the beginning and only Topalov was pressing for an advantage in the middle game.
However, with a slightly punctured pawn structure, Anand ventured in to a rook and opposite colour Bishops endgame at the right opportunity and a timely pawn sacrifice enabled him to maintain the balance. After the trading of rooks the result was almost decided and after 69 moves peace was signed.
With five rounds still to come in this seven-players double round-robin event, Kasparov raced to 5.5 points from his 8 games while Topalov holds the sole second spot on 4.5 from as many games.
Anand on 4 points has company of Leko but has played one game less than the Hungarian so far while Adams is on 3.5 from 8 games. Kasimdzhanov is next in line on 3 points while local lad Francisco Pons Vallejo, who had a bye in this round is on 2.5 points.
The event carrying a total prize pool of Euros 297,000 with Euros 100,000 reserved for the winner, saw Kasparov continue with his rampaging form.
Kasparov crashed through the defences of Kasimdzhanov who played white. The Semi Slav has only recently found its way in to the repertoire of Kasparov and Kasimdzhanov simply could not withstand the onslaught that began with an exchange sacrifice in the middle game.
Kasparov's coordination of pieces was so good that only in a few moves all his pieces were directed towards an attack on the king side and soon Kasimdzhanov's position collapsed.
Winning back the sacrificed material Kasparov transposed to a winning endgame with a couple of extra pawns. Kasimdzhanov resigned after 36 moves.
Leko drew with Adams in another high adrenalin-flowing game of the day. Adams started off with the Petroff but livened things up with a speculative piece sacrifice in the middle game leading to wild complexities.
In the end the truce was signed in 29 moves after Adams found a perpetual check to force matters.
After the game Leko confided that he was not sure what was happening but was just content calculating hard and correct.
Results round 9:
Veselin Toplaov (Bul, 4.5/8) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 4/7); Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 3/8) lost to Garry Kasparov (Rus, 5.5/8); Peter Leko (Hun, 4/8) drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 3.5/8)
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