Viswanathan Anand's hunt for the elusive victory continued as he was held to his fifth straight draw by Michael Adams of England in the fifth round of the MTel Masters Chess in Sofia, Bulgaria on Monday.
At the half way-stage in this category-20 double round robin tournament, a resurgent-looking Vladimir Kramnik of Russia joined Adams atop the tables on 3 points after defeating world's top woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary.
The biggest surprise of the event, however, came from the other board where former World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine silenced his critics with a crushing victory over local favourite and world number three Veselin Topalov.
With just five more rounds to be played, Anand, and Ponomariov are close behind the leaders with 2.5 points in their kitty while Topalov and Polgar slipped to the last spot on 2 points following the debacle. Tuesday is a rest day and the battle royale will resume on Wednesday.
Anand continued his discussion with Adams in the semi-closed opening setups and employed the English opening this time with his white pieces.
The Brit went for the Hedgehog formation and thanks to some fine piece-play Anand emerged with a slight advantage in the middle game.
Almost immediately, Anand went for a series of exchanges in a long tactical variation that led to a minor piece endgame wherein the miniscule advantage for the Indian ace remained but it did not prove enough for his first victory. After a few pawn swaps, the players arrived at bare kings to sign peace in 54 moves.
"I felt I was better but his defence was quite good, winning chances were miniscule unless black makes a mistake," Anand said adding, "The line which we played together is not that common but is quite subtle and interesting. But in the best circumstances you get a very small advantage."
For Ponomariov, luck finally changed. Having lost the first game itself against Kramnik, the Ukrainian was not quite in his usual self so far but yesterday proved another day as he cruised, bruised and squeezed out the defensive resources of Topalov in a spectacular effort.
Playing white side of a Queen's gambit, Ponomariov got a slight initiative in the middle game and nurtured it well to get the dynamic balance rolling in his favour.
Topalov found himself struggling and just could not compete when Ponomariov first won an exchange and then sacrificed a piece to tie down all black forces on the king side.
It was a picturesque sight when Ponomariov simply marched his king to the heart of black's position to deliver the knock out punch. The game lasted 40 moves.
Kramnik was also in his element against Polgar although in this one fortunes fluctuated a bit before destiny had the final say.
Playing the Capablanca variation against Polgar's Nimzo Indian defence, Kramnik could only manage a wild unclear middle game with Polgar launching a king side attack.
The Russian, however, worked on his counter play bid quite accurately and knocked down a black pawn. It was time for a retreat that resulted in trading of queens and soon after the fate of the game was decided in the ensuing rook and minor piece endgame. Polgar called it a day on her 62nd turn.
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