Anand extends lead to a full point

World Champion Vishwanathan Anand extended his lead to a full point with a victory over Grandmaster Gilberto Hernandez of Mexico in the 5th and penultimate round of the Merida Super Grandmasters chess tournament played here.

With this win Anand just has to draw his last round game tomorrow against GM Nigel Short of England to win the title.

Meanwhile, Short readied himself for the final showdown against Anand with an easy draw against former world champion GM Alexander Khalifman of Russia.

Playing his last white in the tournament, Anand gave it everything to squeeze Hernandez in the Sicilian Sveshnikov game. This opening had been causing some problems for Anand in the past few months but today he was thorough with his improvements over the last game that he lost against GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament.

The players blitzed through the opening phase but Hernandez appeared at sea soon after Anand uncorked his new idea. After a long thought, the Mexican came with a piece sacrifice and regained a rook against Bishop to wrest his hopes in the endgame that had few pawns left.

Anand played the endgame imaginatively and immediately brought his knight pair around central squares to control a possible Rooks' foray. Hernandez on the contrary, obtained a passed pawn on the king rook file but his King came under terminal danger once he had to bring it in the middle of the board.

Anand's pieces coordinated perfectly and after containing the passed pawn from advancing further, he threatened to advance his own passed pawn. Seeing no way out of trouble, Hernandez resigned after 53 moves.

With this win Anand took his tally to four points and Short is trailing him with three points.

Short vs Khalifman did not turn out to be a full-blooded affair. Playing black Short stuck to his pet French defence and faced the Winawer variation of the Russian. By choosing an off beat variation Short ventured into less trodden paths very early in the middlegame and got a balanced position despite his light square Bishop, that remained inside the pawn chain.

Khalifman's idea of a king side attack did not bear the right fruits as Short's queen side pawn onslaught became dangerous. Khalifman went for the exchange and thereafter Short did not have a thing to worry about. After a bit of hide and seek the two agreed to split the point after 31 moves.

In the last round tomorrow Short will have the advantage of white pieces against Anand and the uncompromising player that he is, the battle is likely to be a tough one especially because a victory tomorrow will give Short a shared first place with Anand. In the other match, Khalifman will play against Hernandez with black pieces.

Results (Round 5):
V Anand (Ind)(4) bt G Hernandez (Mex)(0.5)
A Khalifman (Rus)(2.5) drew N Short (Eng)(3).