MONTE CARLO, May 1: Viswanathan Anand took an unassailable lead at the end of the penultimate round by defeating Predrag Nikolic 1.5-0.5 to win the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament for the second time, here, on Wednesday. Vasily Ivanchuk scored a crushing 2-0 victory over Jeroen Piket and shares the second spot with Anatoly Karpov and Vesellin Topalov.

Anand, who had a surprising loss against Nikolic in the Linares tournament, scored a smooth win over Nikolic in the Blindfold game. Anand went for the fianchetto variation against the Dutch Defence. Nikolic exchanged Queen's in order to stifle Anand's tactical prowess, but Anand, who has now learnt the art of grinding, showed his strategical skill which enabled him win a few pawns forcing Nikolic to quit.

Anand adopted the Queen's Indian Defence and easily drew Nikolic in the rapid game in 48 moves.

POINTS POSITION

(10th round): Anand 15, Ivanchuk, Karpov, Topalov 12.5, Kramnik 12, Shirov 11, Nikolic 10, Van Wely 9, Ljubojevic 8, Piket 7.5, Lautier 6.5, Andersson 3.5

RESULTS

Blindfold: Ivanchuk bt Piket, Karpov bt Van Wely, Anand bt Nikolic, Ljubojevic drew Lautier, Topalov drew Shirov, Kramnik drew Andersson Rapid: Piket lost to Ivanchuk, Van Wely drew Karpov, Nikolic drew Anand, Lautier drew Ljubojevic, Shirov drew Topalov, Andersson lost to Kramnik

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.