Vishwanathan Anand crushes Vladimir Kramnik, rises to third in Corus Chess Tourney

World champion Viswanathan Anand outmaneuvered Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the 12th round to rise to the third spot in the
elite group 'A' of the Corus Chess Tournament here.

After his second victory in three rounds, Anand moved to third spot in the overall standings on seven points out of a possible 12.

Anand had earlier beaten Alexei Shirov of Spain when he was leading the tournament and Kramnik too was at the helm till he met his nemesis in the Indian ace.

Anand overpowered Kramnik with his wily maneuvers. The Russian went for the Petroff defense with black pieces and found the going tough after the 20th move and then chose something that appeared solid.

But a white exchange sacrifice not long after proved it was far from solid enough.
    
"Kramnik looked at me with raised eyebrows. He seemed to think we'd had a threefold repetition. I had to point out that there was a pawn on f7 the first time round," he said.

By then it was clear that Kramnik was in deep trouble and Anand wrapped the issue in 45 moves.

Asked whether he felt he was unable to play all out because he wanted to keep some of his prepared opening secrets for the title match against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, Anand said, "In the tournament I play 13 different people, in a match I play just one. It's a completely different thing."