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Anand, Kasparov draw

The tensely awaited encounter between Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand in the 61st Hoogovens Chess Tournament turned into something of an anticlimax as the two frontrunners settled for a draw after a mere 22 moves and barely two hours of play in tenth-round action on Thursday.

Anand, who was Black in a Queen's Gambit Accepted, had a few opening problems to overcome but made no mistakes and evened out smoothly. Kasparov spent some time in an effort to regain the initiative but, finding nothing, proposed to sign the peace himself. The only tense moment, according to Anand, came two hours before the start of the game, when his second, Elizbar Ubilava, told him there was a huge gap in the line they had prepared on the basis of his victory with Black over Spain's Miguel Illescas in the tournament at Leon last year. In that game, Anand had played 14. ... g6 and after 15. Rxe7 Qxe7 16. Bg5 Qd6 17. Qd4 Nh5 18. Nxd5 Nc6!, White's attack ran out of steam.

Certain that Kasparov would have done his homework and spotted the weak point, Ubilava was at a loss what his employer should play. "Fortunately, I had a cop-out line," Vishy said. "The only thing that worried me was that I hadn't had the time to check it. But it worked out alright." True enough for despite a long think Kasparov could not find a way to keep his initiative going after Anand's 'cop out' 14. ... Nc6.

Vladimir Kramnik took advantage of the quick draw between the numbers one and two in the standings, edging a half point closer to the top spots on the strength of a fine technical victory over Holland's Jan Timman. In a topical variation of the English, Kramnik launched the novelty 12. Na5 that the Dutchman failed to find an adequate reply to over the board. Timman was soon forced to sacrifice a pawn but failed to create counterplay and ended up in a unfavourable rook ending. Kramnik's 20. Bxd5 was accurate. After 20. f4 Nb6!, the Knight would have been stronger than the white-square Bishop. In the post-mortem, the players looked at an alternative defence for Black after 21. f4 but found that 21. ... Rc6 22. Kf2 Ra6 23. Rd1 Rxa2 24. Be3 d4 25. Bxd4 Bxd4 26. Rxd4 g6, for instance, would also have given White excellent opportunities. It was unclear whether there was a way for Black to manage a draw at all but 26. ... h4 might have been a better try than the text. After 28. f5!, however, the players agreed that the White position was won, while 28. Kf2? g6 would have greatly improved Black's chances.

Dutch champion Ivan Sokolov, who defeated Kasparov in the previous round, kept up his winning streak beating young Loek van Wely in the most spectacular duel of Thursday's action. After Sokolov had pulled open a can of worms early on with his 8. ... Dxd5, neither of the players was certain of the implications of 12. Ne7+, which they later agreed was an important alternative to White's 12. Nxc7.

On the fifteenth move, White had to make another important decision. Both players had seen that 15. Ne5 would lead to more or less equal play after 15. ... Rc8 16. Bf4 Bb5 17. a4 Bxa4 18. Bxb7 Rc2 19. Bxh1 Rxb2. "This is what I saw. Black should not be in danger of losing. A draw is a reasonable outcome," Sokolov said when he commented on the game to reporters, "but Van Wely thought he could get something more."

Here, Van Wely should have gone for 18. e4 g5 19. Bd6 Ne3+ 20. Kg1 Nxg2 21. Kxg2 Bc6 22. d5 exd5 23. exd5 Rxc7 24. Bxc7 Bxd5 with a drawn ending. When he tried 18. h4 instead, it was Black who gained the upper hand, and after 18. ... e5. 19 dxe5 Rxc7 20. e6 Ne3 21. Bxe3 Nxg3 22. Re1 Bxe6, Van Wely found himself in a position "that was not nice to defend in time trouble," as Sokolov put it, and rightly so, as the young Dutchman went from bad to worse and had resign on the 34th when he could no longer prevent a black pawn from queening. The four other games in Thursday's round were all drawn.