The 36-year-old Kasparov and his bitter rival and fellow Russian Anatoly Karpov played out a draw, this time in 47 moves, for the third consecutive time.

But the highlight of the evening was the brilliant victory by India's Viswanathan Anand, with the white pieces, over Russia's Vladimir Kramnik.During a well-known variation of the Russian defence, Anand surprised the experts by exchanging a rook for a bishop, completely unnerving his opponent. Kramnik made a few forced moves and then gave up on his 27th move.Kasparov then took advantage of the moment to defeat the 23-year-old Kramnik in the next match, while Anand and Karpov drew.

In the final session of the evening, Kasparov and Anand agreed to a quick draw, which left the 36-year-old Russian ahead of the field by one point.With one day to go, Kasparov leads the field with 5.5 points,followed by Kramnik with 4.5, and Karpov and Anand with 4.0 each.

The parallel Masters speed chess tournament is led by the computer programme Fritz 6 with 8.0 points, followed by Vesselin Topalov (Bulgaria) with 7.0, Peter Leko (Hungary, 6.5), Peter Svidler (Russia, 5.5), Judit Polgar (Hungary, 5.0), Alexander Morozevich (Russia, 4.5), Christopher Lutz (Germany, 4.5) and Michael Adams (England, 3.0).

Garry's ranking touches new peak

KOZHIKODE: Garry Kasparov touched an all-time high of 2,841 Elo points in the 1999 July rating list, released by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Kasparov, who had dropped to 2,812 in the January list, covered good ground in six months on the strength of his impressive show in Linares and a couple of other events, to earn 29 Elo points.

Viswanathan Anand kept his second place with 2,771, though he had lost 10 points in six months after his dismal performance in Dos Hermanas.

No 3 Vladimir Kramnik of Russia had also dropped 10 points. After Kasparov, it wasRussian Alexander Morozevich who made the best leap, from 2,723 to 2,751 and occupy the fourth place. India's Krishnan Sasikiran reached 2,536 and was placed 10th in the Junior list. In the girls section Vijayalakshmi with 2,326 was 17th.

Top 20 men: Garry Kasparov (Russia) 2,841, Viswanathan Anand (India) 2,771, Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) 2,760, Alexander Morozevich (Russia) 2,751, Alexie Shirov (Spain) 2,722, Boris Gelfand (Israel) 2,713, Anatoly Karpov (Russia) 2,709, Michael Adams (England) 2,705, Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 2,702, Peter Leko (Hungary) 2,699, Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) 2,695, Nigel Short (England) 2,689, Peter Svidler (Russia) 2,684, Zurab Azamaiparashvili (Georgia) 2,681, Alexey Dreev (Russia) 2,679.

Top 10 juniors: Peter Leko (Hungary) 2,699, Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) 2,616, Rustam Kazimdzanov (Uzbekistan) 2,603, Dimitry Bunzmann (Germany) 2,596, Etienne Bacrot (France) 2,592, Karen asrian (Armenia) 2,575, Rafael Leitao (Brazil) 2,574, Vladimir Malakhov (Russia) 2,570, AlexanderGrishchuk (Rus).