Anand looking for a rebound

Five times winner Viswanathan Anand will have to fire on all cylinders to give himself a chance of repeating his last year's joint winning performance in the Amber Blindfold and rapid chess tournament in Monaco.

After the first four rounds, with four points, the Indian ace stands joint fifth in combined standings. He is at joint eighth in blindfold and second in rapid section of the event, currently led by world champion Vladimir Kramnik (6.5 points) of Russia.

Levon Aronian of Armenia is only half a point behind at the second place and Vassily Ivanchuk is another half point away for his third spot.

In the fifth round to be played later, Anand will take on Dutchman Loek Van Wely who is slowly gaining in confidence after a disastrous start. Should Anand make a sweeping 2-0 victory against Van Wely, he will be back with a bang.

Anand has had mixed results so far with the lone exception being the second round when he defeated Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan 2-0.

He has suffered as many as three losses in the blindfold and won once while he has two victories and two draws in the rapid.

Kramnik, on the contrary, has been in exemplary form in blindfold and has won all his games in this section. His rapid score is 2.5 out of a possible four, which has proved good enough for his sole lead before the first rest day.

Aronian also has had some excellent results, especially in the rapid where he is unconquered yet on 3.5 points, a half point clear of Anand. The Armenian has shown excellent all round qualities on his debut in Amber and could be the one to watch out for in the rounds to come.

Standings after Round 4:

Blindfold: 1. Kramnik 4; 2-3. Svidler, Ivanchuk 3 each; 4. Gelfand and Aronian 2.5; 6. Leko 2.0; 7. Morozevich and Radjabov 1.5; 9. Carlsen, Anand, Van Wely and Vallejo Pons 1.0

Rapid: 1. Aronian 3.5; 2. Anand 3; 3-5. Morozevich, Kramnik, Ivanchuk 2.5 each; 6-8. Carlsen, Leko and Svidler 2 each; 9. Gelfand 1.5; 10-11. Vallejo Pons, Van Wely 1 each; 12. Radjabov 0.5

Combined: 1. Kramnik 6.5; 2. Aronian 6; 3. Ivanchuk 5.5; 4. Svidler 5.0; 5-7. Gelfand, Morozevich, Leko, Anand 4 each; 9. Carlsen 3; 10-12. Radjabov, Vallejo Pons and Van Wely 2 each.