GRONINGEN (HOLLAND), Dec 18: Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand of India stormed into the fifth round of the Fide world chess championship here today.Exhibiting chess of very high calibre, Anand outplayed GM Zoltan Almasi of Hungary in the second game with white pieces.

Playing the white side of the King's Indian Defence, Anand strategically outmanouevred the Hungarian and won in just two hours. Anand had taken a 1-0 lead yesterday by winning the first game with black pieces in 50 moves.

Earlier, Grandmasters Loek van Wely of the Netherlands and Slovak Alexander Beliavsky, who scored over Kiril Georgiev and Nigel Short respectively, were also likely to qualify to the next round.

Anand played the Paulsen variation of the Sicilian defence against Almasi's King pawn opening and obtained a very strong position in the middle-game.

However, one or two dubious moves by the Indian allowed the Hungarian GM to get a dangerous initiative.

On the 29th move Anand made a brilliant exchange sacrifice which gave him good counter-play. Almasi blundered a pawn in tactical skirmish on the 35th move which gave Anand an upper hand. The latter outplayed opponent tactically several times during the game and registered a victory in 50 moves.

In the most interesting game of the tournament so far, Alexander Beliavsky of Ukraine scored over Nigel Short of England.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.