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Anand starts final lap as favourite
Perched atop the tables with a slender half-point lead, World Cup Champion Viswanathan Anand starts the final lap as the top favourite to clinch the title in th
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 08:48 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands:
Perched atop the tables with a slender half-point lead, World Cup Champion Viswanathan Anand starts the final lap as the top favourite to clinch the title in the 65th edition of the Corus Chess tournament in progress here. With four more rounds remaining in this Category-19, 14-player all-play-all event, the Indian ace is in sole lead and has displayed the same magical touch that helped him close the season on a high last year. Anand has so far amassed 6 points from the first nine rounds and is half a point ahead of Dutch GM Loek Van Wely and world's highest rated Woman Judit Polgar of Hungary. In the joint fourth spot are Spaniard Alexei Shirov and Russians Evgeny Bareev and Alexander Grischuk, all on 5 points. The players had their final rest day of the event yesterday and later today, Anand will take on Shirov with black pieces. Anand has been in the right nick throughout but he singled out his victory against Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in the second round as the best. In the rounds to come Anand will play against Grischuk, Polgar and Bareev and, barring a bizarre turn of events, just one win and draws in the remaining matches should assure him at least a tie for the first place. Except the ninth round which was marred by short draws, the tournament so far has produced some very high quality games. (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
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