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Anand is sole leader

Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand of India scored a thumping victory over Jeroen Piket of The Netherlands to take the sole lead, with 2.5 points, after the third round of Dortmund Sparkassen chess tournament.

Grandmasters Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Peter Leko of Hungary and Michael Adams of England along with the computer programme JUNIOR 6 trail the leader by 0.5 points and are in the joint second spot.

In the only decisive game of the day, Anand, playing with white pieces, made short work of Piket who looked out of sorts. Anand started the game by moving his king pawn forward and was up against the Arkhengelsk variation of the Ruy Lopez opening.

He then embarked on a relatively less played move on the 14th turn and Piket responded with a lacklustre 'h6' that weakened his kingside. This was enough for Anand to launch an attack against the king by gaining vital central control.

In a bid to revive his position, Piket initiated unwarranted tactical complications with an exchange sacrifice on the 18th move. The position however remained beyond repair as Anand found a simple rook manoeuvre that claimed Piket's queen and the game after 28 moves.

Kramnik applied a rare variation against the Slav defence of compatriot Evgeny Bareev but could not claim any advantage after the opening despite his white pieces. Tactical complications arose in the middlegame and the pieces got exchanged in a tandem.

The players signed truce after the 21st move in a rook and minor piece endgame.

Leko settled for a draw with Vladimir Akopian of Armenia after just 15 moves. Playing with white pieces, Leko was up against the Rubinstin variation of the French defence and routine manoeuvres followed till the 10th move.

Leko's novelty of posting his light square bishop on favourable long diagonal did not yield any advantage as Akopian sacrificed a pawn on the 14th move to get sufficient counterplay. The end position was not clear.

Grandmaster Robert Huebner of Germany opened his account by holding FIDE world champion Alexander Khalifman of Russia to a draw in a semi-Slav game with white pieces.

Huebner exchanged pieces at regular intervals to enter a minor piece endgame where the draw was agreed upon after 36 moves.

Adams employed the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez against the computer programme Deep JUNIOR 6 and exchanged the queens early in the opening. A miniscule advantage was seized by Adams as the game progressed but the computer's bishop pair guaranteed ample counter play. The game ended in a draw after 42 moves.

Results of third round:

V Anand (2.5) beat J Piket (0.5); V Kramnik (2) drew with E Bareev (1.5); P Leko (2) drew with V Akopian (1); R Huebner (0.5) drew with A Khalifman (1); M Adams (2) drew with Deep JUNIOR 6 (2).