Anand agrees to quick draw with <I>Deep Junior 6</I>

Anand agrees to quick draw with Deep Junior 6
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

DORTMUND, JULY 15: Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand played a quick draw with computer programme Deep Junior 6 to retain his joint lead after the seventh round of Dortmund Sparkassen chess tournament here on Saturday.

Anand, with 4.5 points, shares lead with Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Peter Leko of Hungary who also settled for a draw in their seventh round game among themselves.

Vladimir Akopian of Armenia scored the only win of the day when he beat Jeroen Piket of The Netherlands.

Opening with the queen pawn for the first time in the tournament, Anand's anti-computer tactics were put to nought by the software which answered with a central breakthrough on the queenside.

The computer enjoyed a comfortable position after the opening phase got over. Anand got a pawn majority on the queen side but the active position of black pieces compensated for that.

The game was agreed drawn after 18 moves.

Kramnik played a dull draw with Leko in a Petroff defence game with black pieces. Leko failed to extract any advantage out of his opening and exchanged minor pieces intermittently.

Sensing some danger in his weak pawn structure, the Hungarian offered truce on the 28th move which was accepted.

In a queens gambit game, Piket faced a new move by Akopian in the opening and found himself totally at sea. He weakened his king side to regain the dark square bishop but the move spelt his doom.

Akopian opened the king bishop file and posted all his pieces in attacking position to pocket the full point after 25 moves.

Michael Adams of England drew his game with Robert Huebner of Germany in a Queens Indian defence game. Huebner got a slight advantage with white pieces in the middlegame but exchanged far too many pieces to let the opportunity go.

Adams retained an impregnable position despite a queenside bind and earned a draw through a repetition of moves after 36 moves.

The game between Fide world champion Alexander Khalifman of Russia and compatriot Evgeny Bareev resulted in another dull draw. In the Semi-Slav defence game, Khalifman, playing with white pieces, could not claim any advantage from his opening.

The black forces were confined to passivity but an attack against the weak queen knight pawn gave Barrev sufficient counterplay to steer the game to a draw after 29 moves.

Results (Round seven): V Anand (4.5) drew with Deep Junior 6 (3.5); P Leko (4.5) drew with V kramnik (4.5); R Huebner (2) drew with M Adams (4); V Akopian (3.5) beat J Piket (2); A Khalifman (3) drew with E Bareev (3.5).

The Moves:

V Anand vs Deep Junior 6

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. Bd3 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Be7 7. a3 Qc7 8. Qe2 0-0 9. 0-0 Rd8 10. Re1 a6 11. h3 b5 12. dxc5 bxc5 13. e4 Nh5 14. Nb3 Ng3 15. Qc2 dxe4 16. Nxc5 Nf5 17. Nxd3 Nf5 18. Bf4 Draw Agreed.