World champion Viswanathan Anand delivered the goods when it mattered the most, defeating leader Magnus Carlsen of Norway in a complicated 11th round game of the 'A' group in the Corus International Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.
Anand showed tremendous poise in handling a direct attack from Carlsen right from the beginning and the Indian himself conceded that "though I could not find a forced win for white, but I will be surprised if it isn't there."
Carlsen's loss was a big gain for Levon Aronian of Armenia who outplayed Loek Van Wely of Holland to emerge as the new sole leader in the category-20 super event.
The Armenian is now on 7 points, a half point clear of Anand, Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan who all have 6.5 points apiece.
With just two rounds to go, Anand's chances will depend largely on how he fares against van Wely in the next round again with black pieces.
In the final round, the Indian ace is slated to meet Kramnik with white and a victory over van Wely will definitely prompt the Indian to go for a 'bloody battle' against Kramnik and overtake Aronian who is set to meet Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Judit Polgar of Hungary in his last two games.
It was some good news for P Harikrishna in the 'B' group as he converted a better endgame in to a full point against Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria. The Indian was pretty happy with his effort.
"I have missed so many good positions in this event, so this was a welcome relief, I hope to be able to well in the remaining rounds and add some elo points", Harikrishna told PTI after the game.
More from rediff