Anand edges past Leko

India's fine day in sports continued with World champion Vishwanathan Anand scraping through to the final of the Advance chess championships with a narrow victory over Hungarian Peter Leko in a tie-breaker on Saturday night.

In the other semi-final, Shirov also come back from a 0-1 deficit to defeat Veselin Topalov.

In the first of the two tie-break games, it was once again a nerve-wracker. Anand played like lightning and his advantage seemed huge, but then suddenly he was tight on time and even though he seemed winning, the Indian preferred to offer a draw, which he got after 56 moves. He clearly wanted to avoid a blunder.

In the second tie-breaker, Anand again played well in a Caro-Kann. Leko, with white, tried for a queenside attack and failed, and in the process gave away the advantage. Anand gave a brilliant rook sacrifice and then pushed his pawns and won to get into the final.

Earlier, the defending champion had lost the first game with white pieces but fought back and levelled in the next game. The third and fourth games were drawn, sending the match into the tie-breaker.

In the opening game, Leko stunned Anand with black pieces and gained a crucial 1-0 lead. The game followed the Petroff defence and Anand took it along the lines he had played against Vladimir Kramnik in Tilburg in 1999. He also came up with a new development on the 15th move.

Despite time trouble, Leko kept his cool and eventually turned tables with some terrific usage of the computer. With moves flying fast and thick, as the players had less than a minute each, suddenly Anand resigned as the game simplified.

In the second game, with Anand, as black, it was the Indian's turn to pay back. The game was a Sicilian-Najdorf. Anand used his space and time advantage to the hilt. With his strong knight, as also Leko falling back on time again, this time Anand hit well. Also, Leko played a little casual and ended losing after 26 moves to put tie match 1-1.

The third and fourth games went along the Petroff and were drawn as both decided against taking needless risks. The third game lasted 48 moves and the fourth 20.