MONTE CARLO, MARCH 19: Viswanathan Anand crashed to another defeat. Losing to Vladimir Kramnik in the blindfold section of the Eighth Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess tournament here. The Indian Grandmaster however managed a draw in rapidplay to salvage a half point from the third round.Anatoly Karpov won his third successive round in a handy manner again at 1.5-0.5 against Jeroen Piket. He now shares the top spot with Vladimir Kramnik. Both have 4.5 points each after three rounds.
Loek Van Wely and Ljubomir Ljubojevic shared the two games, with the former won the rapid but lost in Blindfold. Van Wely refused a draw and then blundered away a piece against Ljubojevic. Similar results were obtained in the pairing between Nikolic and Lautier. The Frenchman won the rapid game but lost in Blindfold.
Karpov has the best score in rapid play at 2.5 out of three, while Kramnik, Lautier, Topalov and Van Wely have two out of three.
Overall standings: Kra mnik and Karpov (4.5 each), Lautier (4.0), Topalov (3.5),Piket, Nikolic, Ljubojevic (3 each), Anand, Shirov, Ivanchuk (2.5 each), Van Wely (2), Gelfand (1).
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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