Viswanathan Anand [Images] cruised past Dutch Grandmaster Loek Van Wely with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the ninth round of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament at the Monte Carlo Grand in Monaco on Tuesday.

Winning his blindfold game and drawing the rapid, Anand almost assured himself his fourth title on Monaco soil after taking his lead to a whopping three points with just two rounds or four games remaining in this unique event that has total prize-money of Euros 193,250.

The Indian ace now just needs 1.5 points in the remaining four rounds for his fourth unshared title in Amber chess that is played on a round-robin basis with one blindfold and one rapid game in each round.

With his seventh victory in the nine mini-matches here so far, Anand also stepped closer to victory in all the three events -- rapid, blindfold and combined -- which he continued to lead solely after the ninth round.

For the record, Anand now has 13.5 points under his belt and the closest rival is last year's joint-winner Alexander Morozevich of Russia [Images], who is three points behind.

In joint third spot are Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Peter Leko of Hungary and former Russian champion Peter Svidler, who all have 10 points each in their kitty while Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik, perceived as a threat to Anand's supremacy here at the start of the event does not even have a theoretical chances of catching up with Anand as he lags behind 4.5 points from the Indian ace.

In blindfold, Anand continues to enjoy 1.5 points lead over Morozevich and Francisco Pons Vallejo of Spain while in the rapid the champion from Madras was able to stretch his lead to a full point following favourable results in other games.

It turned out to be an interesting outing for Anand against Van Wely. The Dutchman had drawn with the Indian when he was close to defeat in the last Corus chess tournament and he generally played solid games in both forms of chess.

In the blindfold, it was an English opening wherein Anand had no troubles equalizing as black.

Van Wely let Anand enjoy some advantage amidst dynamic balance that ensued in the queen and minor piece endgame and the latter was quick to spot a hole in his opponent's analysis in the final stages and won a pawn with thematic breakthrough.

The rest turned out to be child's play and Anand wrapped the issue in 45 moves.

The rapid game in fact turned out to be a long torture for Anand after he overlooked a simple knight manoeuvre in the middle game with white pieces. Surprisingly enough, the Indian ace has been going through a rough time playing white this year while his black scores have been just excellent.

Here too, Anand's lone loss in the event had come at the hands of Russian Evgeny Bareev a couple of rounds earlier where he played with the favourable colour of the game.

Van Wely had almost a won position arising out of a Semi Slav defence when he simply went berserk with his plan and allowed Anand to get away with a drawn endgame despite being

an exchange down.

Trying relentlessly for a long time, Wely eventually decided enough was enough and signed peace after 119 moves.

This was the second longest game of the event after the sixth round duel between Svidler and Vallejo that had lasted for 128 moves.

Apart from Anand, Morozevich, Leko, Svidler and Vallejo tasted success today.

Of the three, Morozevich was exemplary in his blindfold game against Alexei Shirov of Spain who was outdone in a clinical display. Later the two drew their rapid game.

Leko defeated Ivanchuk in the rapid game but in the opinion of experts he was probably lucky in this 58-mover.

The real surprise was Svidler's 1.5-0.5 victory over Kramnik after the Blindfold game in which the former played white ended in a draw in quick time.

In the return game, Kramnik, perhaps trying a bit too rashly, played reckless moves and was in for a surprise in the middle game as Svidler trapped him off guard in tactical complexities. The game lasted just 30 moves but exhaustion on Kramnik's face was evident quite easily.

Vallejo held on to his own in the other important clash of the day against Bareev in the Blindfold and won an engrossing battle and latter in the rapid he played safely to steer the game to a draw.

Results round 9 (Blindfold):

Boris Gelfand (Isr) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul); Loek Van Wely (Ned) lost to Viswanathan Anand (Ind); Peter Svidler (Rus) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus); Peter Leko (Hun) drew

with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr); Alexander Morozevich (Rus) beat Alexei Shirov (Esp); Evgeny Bareev (Rus) lost to Francisco Pons Vallejo.

Blindfold Standings: 1. Anand 7; 2-3. Morozevich, Vallejo 5.5 each; 4-5. Svidler, Kramnik 5 each; 6-8. Ivanchuk, Leko, Gelfand 4.5 each; 9. Topalov 4; 10. Shirov 3.5; 11. Van Wely

3; 12. Bareev 2.

Rapid: Topalov drew with Gelfand; Anand drew with Van Wely; Kramnik lost to Svidler; Ivanchuk lost to Leko; Shirov drew with Morozevich; Vallejo drew with Bareev.

Rapid Standings: 1. Anand 6.5; 2-3. Leko, Ivanchuk 5.5 each; 4-6. Morozevich, Shirov, Svidler 5 each; 7-9. Kramnik, Bareev, Gelfand 4 each; 10. Topalov 3.5; 11-12. Van Wely, Vallejo 3 each.

Combined Standings: 1. Anand 13.5; 2. Morozevich 10.5; 3-5. Ivanchuk, Leko, Svidler 10 each; 6. Kramnik 9; 7-9. Gelfand, Shirov, Vallejo 8.5 each; 10. Topalov, 7.5; 11-12. Van Wely, Bareev 6 each.

The moves blindfold:

Loek Van Wely v/s V Anand

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3 6. Qxc3 b6 7. b4 a5 8. Bb2 axb4 9. axb4 Rxa1+ 10. Bxa1 c5 11. g3 d6 12. Bg2 e5 13. b5 Re8 14. O-O Nbd7 15. d3 Bb7 16. Bb2 Nf8 17. Ra1 Ne6 18. e3 Qb8 19. Qa3 Qc7 20. Qb3 Ra8 21. Rxa8+ Bxa8 22. Qa3 Qb8 23. e4 Bb7 24. Bh3 Bc8 25. Bc1 h6 26. Kg2 Bd7 27. Be3 Nd4 28. Bxd7 Nxd7 29. Nxd4 exd4 30. Bf4 g5 31. Bd2 f5 32. f3 fxe4 33. dxe4 Ne5 34. f4 Nxc4 35. Qa2 d5 36. exd5 Nxd2 37. Qxd2 Qa8 38. Qe2 Qxd5+ 39. Kf2 d3 40. Qe7 d2 41. Qe8+ Kg7 42. Qe7+ Kg6 43. Qe8+ Kf5 44. Qc8+ Ke4 45. Qe8+ Kd3 white resigned.

 Rapid:

V Anand V/s Loek Van Wely

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. d4 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 a6 9. e4 c5 10. d5 Bb7 11. O-O Qc7 12. Bc2 c4 13. Nd4 e5 14. Nf5 g6 15. Ne3 Bc5 16. Qf3 O-O 17. Bd2 Ne8 18. Ne2 Nd6 19. Rfc1 Rac8 20. a4 b4 21. a5 Qd8 22. Ra4 Ba8 23. Bxb4 Bxb4 24. Rxb4 Qxa5 25. Ra4 Qb6 26. Rb1 Bb7 27. h4 Qd8 28. Qg3 Nc5 29. Nc3 Nxa4 30. Bxa4 f6 31. h5 g5 32. h6 Rb8 33. Nf5 Bc8 34. Ng7 Qe7 35. Qf3 f5 36. exf5 Bxf5 37. Re1 Rxb2 38. Qg3 e4 39. f4 Bg6 40. Ne6 gxf4 41. Nxf4 Qa7+ 42. Kh2 Qf2 43. Qxf2 Rxf2 44. Nxg6 hxg6 45. Nxe4 Nxe4 46. Rxe4 R2f4 47. Re7 c3 48. Bc2 R8f7 49. Re3 Kh7 50. Rxc3 R7f6 51. R a3 Rd4 52. Bd3 a5 53. Bb5 Rxd5 54. Rxa5 Kxh6 55. Ra6 Rxa6 56. Bxa6 Kg5 57. g3 Rd6 58. Bc8 Rc6 59. Bd7 Rc7 60. Be6 Kf6 61. Bg4 Ke5 62. Bf3 Rh7+ 63. Kg2 Kd4 64. Ba8 Ke3 65. Bc6 Rc7 66. Ba8 Rc2+ 67. Kg1 Kd4 68. Bb7 Rb2 69. Bc6 Ke5 70. Ba8 Kf5 71. Bf3 Ke5 72. Kf1 Kd4 73. Kg1 Ke3 74. Ba8 Ra2 75. Bb7 Rd2  76. Ba8 Rf2 77. Bb7 Ke2 78. Ba8 Ke3 79. Bb7 g5 80. Ba8 g4 81. Bb7 Ra2 82. Bc6 Rb2 83. Ba8 Kd4 84. Bc6 Rb6 85. Ba8 Ke3 86. Kg2 Rd6 87. Bb7 Rd2+ 88. Kg1 Rf2 89. Ba8 Rf3 90. Kg2 Rf2+ 91. Kg1 Ra2 92. Bb7 Ra4 93. Kg2 Kd4 94. Bc6 Rb4 95. Kg1 Kc5 96. Ba8 Rb8 97. Be4 Kd6 98. Kg2 Rb4 99. Ba8 Ra4 100. Bb7 K c7 101. Bd5 Rd4 102. Ba8 Ra4 103. Bd5 Kd6 104. Bb7 Ra7 105. Be4 Ke5 106. Bc6 Ra6 107. Bb7 Rb6 108. Ba8 Rb8 109. Bc6 Kd6 110. Be4 Re8 111. Bf5 Rg8 112. Be4 Re8 113. Bf5 Re2+ 114. Kf1 Ra2 115. Bxg4 Ke5 116. Bf3 Kd4 117. Kg1 Ke3 118. Bd5 Rd2 119. Bc6 draw agreed.

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