Defending champion Viswanathan Anand bounced right back into contention with a thrilling 2-0 verdict over Vassily Ivanchuk in the penultimate round of the Melody Amber Blind and Rapid chess tournament in Monaco, France.
Anand was aided by a combination of luck and pluck, as he benefited from a blunder by Ivanchuk in the blindfold game and then in the rapid, the Indian ace got a chance to turn a straight-forward game into a fine win.
The rapid win helped Anand consolidate his position in rapid standings and took his tally to seven out of 10 and half a point ahead of second placed Evegeny Bareev. In the combined standings Anand is now at 12 points, one behind the joint leaders, Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Morozevich.
The race for the titles is still open. While Anand has a clear edge in rapid, where he has been a consistent leader throughout, he could also end up in joint first place overall if the final round results go in his favour.
Anand is up against Boris Gelfand, against who he has a fine track record, while Kramnik faces the strong Veselin Topalov and Morozevich will meet Peter Svidler. Anand needs to win both his matches, and hope that Kramnik and Morozevich do not score more than one out of two in their mini matches.
Anand, Bareev and Shirov were the three big winners of the day, where 11 out of 12 games were decisive, showing intense competition till the very end. The only draw game was the blindfold clash between Peter Leko and Topalov.
In his blindfold game against Ivanchuk, Anand was somewhat lucky. Anand playing with black started out as being well off in the game which was Ruy Lopez Closed. Then Anand lost his way and Ivanchuk held the advantage. Then it was Ivanchuk's turn to get confused and lose his way. Ivanchuk lost a piece and then resigned on the 61st move.
The blindfold game by its nature is susceptible to mistakes. Ivanchuk had the advantage and then instead of following that line, he blundered a rook and then in his desperation continued even after losing a second piece. But Anand made no more mistakes.
Anand, said, "I was better from the opening and then I got confused, but then later he got even more confused."
The rapid, where Anand has been dominating was again a surprise. Anand seemed to have misplayed his opening, a French Rubinstein. He offered a draw on move 17, but Ivanchuk looking for revenge for his blindfold loss wanted to play on. Anand was not in a really losing spot, but Ivanchuk over tried and in the process blundered once more and lost the game in 47 moves.
Those two wins suddenly gave Anand a chance to get into contention for the overall title.
Morozevich opened his blindfold game against Evgeny Bareev with one of his many unorthodox pet lines against the Caro Kann. It served him well and he had Bareev in trouble and got a win, which was his seventh one in a row, an amazing streak.
But a little later, that streak ended when Morozevich played another thriller but lost. He blundered a pawn early and then tried to continue with a piece sacrifice for two pawns. Despite in a seemingly lost position, he carried on but lost after giving the viewers a lot of entertainment.
Kramnik won a fine game in blindfold in a Sicilian Paulsen against Svidler. But then in the rapid, he played poorly and Svidler rose to the occasion and beat Kramnik in a Ruy Lopez Berlin.
Results of Round 10 (Blindfold): Gelfand beat Van Wely; Ivanchuk lost to Anand; Shirov beat Vallejo; Leko drew with Topalov; Morozevich beat Bareev; Kramnik beat Svidler.
Standings Blindfold (after round 10): 1. Morozevich 8.0; 2. Kramnik 7.5; 3. Ivanchuk and Leko 6.0; 5. Anand, Shirov, Svidler and Bareev 5.0; 9. Topalov 4.0; 10. Van Wely 3.5; 11. Gelfand 3.0; 12. Vallejo Pons 2.0.
Results of Round 10 (Rapid): Van Wely lost to Gelfand; Anand beat Ivanchuk; Vallejo lost to Shirov; Topalov beat Leko; Bareev beat Morozevich; Svidler beat Kramnik.
Standings Rapid (after round 10): 1. Anand 7.0; 2. Bareev 6.5; 3. Svidler 6.0; 4. Topalov, Leko and Kramnik 5.5; 7. Morozevich, Ivanchuk and Gelfand 5.0; 10. Shirov 4.5; 11. Van Wely 3.0; 12. Vallejo Pons 1.5.
Standings Combined (after round 10): 1. Morozevich and Kramnik 13.0; 3. Anand 12.0; 4. Leko and Bareev 11.5; 6. Svidler and Ivanchuk 11.0; 8. Topalov and Shirov 9.5; 10. Gelfand 8.0; 11. Van Wely 6.5; 12. Vallejo Pons 3.5;
Pairings for 11th and final round: Bareev-Leko; Svidler-Morozevich; Topalov-Kramnik; Anand-Gelfand; Vallejo-Ivanchuk; Van Wely-Shirov.
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