Vishy Anand's Great Indian Rope Trick

Vishwanathan Anand appears to have perfected the art of escaping from impossible situations. In round 10 of the Corus Supertournament, at Wijk aan Zee, Anand went up against the flamboyant Latvian-born Alexei Shirov, whom he had crushed in Teheran in December in the finals of the FIDE world championship cycle -- and found himself in trouble in a French Defence.

Playing black and fighting for equality on the board, Anand eschewed the Winawer variation, opting instead for the ultra-solid Rubinstein, and thus indicating that he would he happy with a draw. However, he appeared to have slipped in move 20, and then blundered from an already bad position on move 24. Around the same time, Shirov appears to have realised that Anand has an impregnable kingside defence, and switched to a focus on black's queenside. After the queen exchange, Shirov pinned black down with his two bishops poised on prime squares. Playing aggressively, Shirov went an exchange up and black seemed in a hopeless position.

One of Anand's strengths, though, is his phlegmatic countenance and awesome analytical skills -- the combination of which has often confused opponents. Faced by his dead-pan face, and aware of his skill at finding the right defensive line, opponents have often assumed that Anand's position is better than it looks, and ended up giving away a won game.

It happened again, here, with Shirov finding himself in time trouble and, under pressure, overlooking a simple holding operation on move 37 that would have helped him get out of time trouble (he had 11 seconds on the clock, while Anand had a minute and a half) and push for the win. The two players, instead, agreed to split points after 49 moves, by which point Anand had fought back to a position where he could draw and, if Shirov overplayed his hand, could even have gone for the win. Anand thus came up with his 8th successive draw and moved to 5.5 points at the end of 10 rounds.

Shirov, thus, also got half a point to take his tally up to 7. And by virtue of the fact that Jeroen Piket held Garry Kasparov to a draw, Shirov and Kasparov still share the lead after 10 rounds, with three left to play.

In other action, Kasparov's attempt to assume the sole lead was defeated by Jeroen Piket, who held the former world champion to an honourable draw. Kasparov, with black, opted for the Tartakower Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined -- a solid choice, which according to theory affords black an opportunity to launch a flat-out attack on the white central squares. Piket, however, has a decent record against the world number one-ranked player, and fought Kasparov to a standstill.

Jan Timman, who has had a remarkable run of blunders in the ongoing tournament, came up with another one when facing the Sicilian Dragon as played by Sergei Tiviakov -- and went down to defeat. Michael Adams, meanwhile, took advantage of Loek van Wely's generosity -- a pawn sacrifice in the opening being followed by a lost pawn in the middle. Playing black, Adams then played the endgame to perfection to win.

Alexander Morozevich, the flamboyant Russian who has been electrifying the crowds with unpredictable, often brilliant, chess was at it again against Fedorov. The latter played white and started off aggressively -- but rather than defend with black, Morozevich became even more aggressive, running circles around his opponent and finally trapping him in a mating net in a superb display of flat-out attacking chess.

On other boards, Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik fought to a draw, as did Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk.

The 11th round will be played on Friday, followed by a day's rest before the crucial 12th and 13th rounds which will decide the title. Kasparov has a great chance to bid for an unprecedented hat-trick at the tournament, given that he has white in two of the three games to follow. Shirov shares equal points, but must now face three very strong players in Morozevich, Ivanchuk and Kramnik. Morozevich increasingly shapes like the dark horse of the tournament -- a mere half point behind the two leaders, and playing brilliantly throughout the tournament. His clash with Shirov could well be the game to watch, in the remaining rounds.

Anand plays Jeroen Piket, Jan Timman, and Loek Van Wely, and has the advantage of white in two of the three games. However, unless there are incredible swings of fortune for the leaders here on in, Anand even with three straight wins has very little chance of taking, or even tying, for the title.

The leaderboard after Round 10:

1-2: Garry Kasparov (RUS), Alexei Shirov (ESP) 7/10,

3: Alexander Morozevich (RUS) 6.5/10,

4-5: Michael Adams (ENG), Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) 6/10,

6-7: Vishy Anand (IND), Vassili Ivanchuk (UKR) 5.5/10

8: Peter Leko (HUN) 4.5/10,

9-11: Jan Timman (NLD), Veselin Topalov (BUL), Loek Van Wely (NLD) 4/10,

12-13: Alexei Fedorov (BLR), Jeroen Piket (NLD) 3.5/10,

14: Sergei Tiviakov (NLD) 3/10.

The Featured Game:

White: Alexei Shirov
Black: Vishy Anand

French Defence, Rubinstein Variation

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 Nc3 dxe4
4 Nxe4 Nd7
5 Nf3 Ngf6
6 Bd3 c5
7 O-O Nxe4
8 Bxe4 Nf6
9 Bg5 cxd4
10 Nxd4 Be7
11 Bf3 O-O
12 Re1 Qc7
13 c3 a6
14 Bh4 Bd6
15 Bxf6 gxf6
16 g3 Rd8
17 Bg2 Bf8
18 Qh5 Bg7
19 Rad1 Qb6
20 Nb3 Re8
21 c4 Qc7
22 Qa5 Qxa5
23 Nxa5 Bf8
24 Re3 Rb8
25 Rb3 b6
26 Nc6 Rb7
27 Na5 Rb8
28 Bc6 Re7
29 c5 b5
30 Rbd3 b4
31 Rd8 Rc7
32 Bd7 Rxc5
33 Nc6 Bxd7
34 Nxb8 Bb5
35 Nd7 Bxd7
36 R1xd7 Kg7
37 Rb8 Rc2
38 Rbb7 Bc5
39 Rxf7+ Kg6
40 Rxh7 Bxf2+
41 Kf1 Rxb2
42 Rh4 Bc5
43 Rc4 Bf8
44 Rc8 Bd6
45 Rc6 Be5
46 Rxa6 Kf5
47 Rbb6 Ke4
48 Rxe6 Rxh2
49 Rxf6 Draw agreed