Gelfand joins Anand in Lead at World Championship

MEXICO CITY: Viswanathan Anand defended skilfully as he split the point with Hungarian GM Peter Leko to remain in lead after the sixth round of the World Chess Championship here.

The draw, however, allowed Israeli Grandmaster Boris Gelfand to catch up with Anand at the top after beating Russian Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich.

Anand and Gelfand have four points from six games and have a slender half-point lead over their nearest rivals.

Anand faced the Spanish Opening in his game against Peter Leko and he replied with the Archangelsk variation. He sacrificed a pawn in the opening but Leko returned it in a couple of moves in an attempt to wrest the initiative.

The position looked dangerous for Anand but the Indian Grandmaster defended skillfully to neutralise all the threats.

The players agreed to split the point after 21 moves in an equal position.

Gelfand was the only winner in the sixth round. Defending Champion Vladimir Kramnik had to be content with a draw against Levon Aronian and Alexander Grischuk split the point against Peter Svidler.

Gelfand continued his superb form and played the solid finachetto variation against the Queens Indian defence and obtained the better endgame after exchange of queens on the 17th move.

Morozevich is not a player who likes to defend quietly and he reacted in his usual style by sacrificing an exchange to create complications.

Gelfand played with tactical accuracy and simplified the position with a nice combination on the 26th move. It was plain sailing thereafter and Gelfand pocketed the point in 50 moves.

Kramnik faced the Catalan opening in his game against Aronian. The defending champion had little difficulty in obtaining equality from the opening. He made a risky pawn grab in the early middlegame which put him in some danger, but managed to survive with tricky play.

Aronian saw his chances evaporate and the draw was agreed to after 22 moves.

The most exciting game of the day was a wild slugfest between Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler. Svidler won a pawn in a complex variation of the Semi Slav defence and allowed Grischuk to dominate the centre.

Grischuk kept on sacrificing pawns and was three pawns down at one point. However, the position was far from clear as there were dangerous threats against Svidler's king. Both sides made errors in the wildly complicated position and the game finally ended in a draw with perpetual check.

Results  Round 6
Peter Leko (Hun,2.5) drew Vishwanathan Anand(Ind, 4.0); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 4.0) beat Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 2.0); Levon Aronian (Arm, 2.5) drew Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3.5); Alexander Grischuk (Rus,3.5) drew Peter Svidler (Rus, 2.0)

Standings after Round 6:
1  2. Anand and Gelfand  4.0 each 3  4. Kramnik and Grischuk  3.5 each 5  6. Aronian and Leko  2.5 each 7  8. Svidler and Morozevich  2.0 each.

Games from round 6:

Leko - Anand
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.00 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.a4 Rb8 9.d4 Bb6 10.Na3 00 11.axb5 axb5 12.Nxb5 Bg4 13.Be3 exd4 14.cxd4 Nxe4 15.Qc2 Qe8 16.Ba4 Bd7 17.Rfe1 Nb4 18.Qc4 Ba5 19.Nc3 Bxa4 20.Rxa4 d5 21.Qf1 Nc6 

Gelfand - Morozevich
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bd2 f5 8.d5 Bf6 9.Qc2 Qe7 10.Nxe4 fxe4 11.Qxe4 Bxb2 12.Rd1 Bf6 13.00 Na6 14.Nd4 Nc5 15.Qe3 exd5 16.cxd5 Qxe3 17.Bxe3 000 18.Rb1 Rhe8 19.Nb5 Rxe3 20.fxe3 a6 21.Nd4 Re8 22.Nf5 d6 23.Rb4 h5 24.g4 a5 25.Rbf4 Rh8 26.gxh5 Rxh5 27.Rg4 Rh7 28.Nxg7 Rxg7 29.Bh3 Rxg4+ 30.Bxg4+ Kd8 31.Rxf6 Bxd5 32.a3 b5 33.h4 b4 34.axb4 axb4 35.Rf4 b3 36.Bf5 Bf7 37.Kf2 Ke7 38.Ke1 Kf6 39.Bd3+ Kg7 40.Kd2 Be6 41.Kc3 Bf7 42.Bc4 Bxc4 43.Rxc4 Kg6 44.e4 Ne6 45.Kxb3 Kh5 46.e5 d5 47.Rb4 Kg6 48.Rb8 Nd4+ 49.Kb2 Nf5 50.Rf8 10

Aronian - Kramnik
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 00 6.00 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Bd2 Be4 11.Qc1 Qc8 12.Bg5 Nbd7 13.Nbd2 Bb7 14.Nb3 a5 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Nc5 Bd5 17.e4 Bc4 18.Nxd7 Qxd7 19.Re1 Bxd4 20.Rd1 c5 21.Qc2 e5 22.Nxe5 

Grischuk - Svidler
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.h4 g4 11.Ne5 h5 12.00 Nbd7 13.Qc2 Nxe5 14.Bxe5 Bg7 15.Bg3 Qxd4 16.Rfd1 Qc5 17.Bd6 Qb6 18.a4 a6 19.e5 Nd7 20.a5 Qa7 21.Ne4 c5 22.Ng5 Nxe5 23.Bxe5 Bxe5 24.Bxc4 bxc4 25.Qa4+ Kf8 26.Rd7 Bd5 27.Rd1 Bd4 28.Rxa7 Rxa7 29.b3 Kg7 30.bxc4 Ba8 31.Qc2 g3 32.Rxd4 cxd4 33.Qe2 gxf2+ 34.Qxf2 Rd8 35.Qg3 Kf8 36.Qe5 Ke8 37.Nxe6 fxe6 38.Qh8+ Ke7 39.Qg7+ Ke8 40.Qh8+ Ke7 41.Qg7+ .