World's No. 2 Grandmaster India's Viswanathan Anand defeated Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen to take sole lead after 10 rounds at the Morelia-Linares Super GMs chess tournament.
LINARES: World's No. 2 Grandmaster India's Viswanathan Anand defeated Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen to take sole lead after 10 rounds at the Morelia-Linares Super GMs chess tournament here.
Anand handed young Carlsen his second defeat in as many clashes, having beaten him in the first leg of the tournament in Morelia, Mexico, to take his points tally to 6.5.
Carlsen is now placed second along with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine with 5.5 points.
Anand's win from a Ruy Lopez opening came in just 38 moves and underlined his superior play and experience. It was Anand's fourth win in 10 rounds.
Apart from two wins over Carlsen, Anand also has wins in Morelia over Peter Leko of Hungary and Alexander Morozevich of Russia, both of whom he still has to meet in Linares.
Anand's sole loss has been against Levon Aronian of Armenia.
The other three games in round 10 were all drawn.
Leko got into trouble with the white pieces against world No 1 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, but managed to salvage a draw in a long-drawn Sicilian Najdorf lasting 84 moves.
The Anand-Carlsen game was in Ruy Lopez and Anand used on his 14th move, b4, something that Leko introduced two months ago. But it was on the 17th, that the Indian introduced his own novelty with 17 Bb3.
Anand had a better-placed bishop and sought to spoil Black's queenside coordination.
Carlsen failed to see a chance to get into the game that could give him at least a draw. He seemed to have
underestimated the danger. He left the kingside without defenders.
Anand capitalised on this and gave a piece for excellent compensation. Thereafter Black (Carlsen) was in trouble and finally resigned on the 38th move before the first time control.
Ivanchuk and Svidler drew in 44 moves of another Ruy Lopez and Aronian and Morozevich drew in 29 moves of an anti-Meran and Leko got a draw against Topalov in 84 moves.
The first leg of the tournament in Morelia had seven rounds and this round will also have the same number of rounds.
Results of Round 10: Anand beat Carlsen, Ivanchuk drew with Svidler, Aronian drew with Morozevich, Leko drew with Topalov.
Standings after Round 10
1. Anand 6.5 points
2. Ivanchuk and Carlsen 5.5
4. Svidler and Aronian 5.0
6. Topalov 4.5
7. Leko and Morozevich 4.0
Pairing for round 11
Aronian v Leko, Morozevich v Anand, Carlsen v Ivanchuk, Svidler v Topalov
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