WijK Aan Zee (The Netherlands): 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."
Meanwhile Magnus Carlsen of Norway played out a draw with Peter Leko of Hungary to emerge as the sole leader on eight points, a half point clear of Kramnik and Shirov.
In the final round, Carlsen meets Caruana Fabiano of Italy while Anand will take on Loek van Wely of Holland.
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In the 'B' group Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri played out a draw with Varuzhan Akobian of United States to remain a full point adrift of the nearest rivals. Giri on 8.5 points is followed by Ni Hua and Erwin l'Ami who both have 7.5 points apiece.
Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi suffered a defeat at the hands of Grandmaster Tomi Nyvback of Finland. It was a Grunfeld defense wherein Negi misplayed the middle game to reach a heavy pieces inferior ending. Nyback won in 41 moves.
P Harikrishna played out a draw with Emil Sutovsky of Israel from the black side of a Caro Kann defense. The game was drawn in 38 moves following heaps of exchanges in the middle game.
Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta defeated compatriot Soumya Swaminathan from a Classical Sicilian in the 'C' group.
LI Chao of China won this section with one round to spare after taking a draw with Stefan Kuipers of Holland. The Chinese player enjoys a 1.5 points lead with 9 points in this section. Abhijeet and Ray Robson of United States share the second spot here having 7.5 points apiece.
Results round 12:
Group A: Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 7) beat Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 7.5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 6.5) drew with Alexei Shirov (Esp, 7.5); Leinier Dominguez (Cub, 6) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 6.5); Peter Leko (Hun, 6) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 8); Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 6.5); Sergey Tiviakov (Ned, 4.5) drew with Nigel Short (Eng, 4.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 4) beat Loek van Wely (Ned, 4.5).
Group B: Erwin l'Ami (Ned, 7.5) drew with Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 4.5); Ni Hua (Chn, 7.5) drew with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 5); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 5.5) drew with Pentala Harikrishna (Ind, 6); Tomi Nyback (Fin, 4.5) beat Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 5.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 8.5) drew with Varuzhan Akobian (Usa, 3.5); David Howell (Eng, 6) drew with Wesley So (Phi, 7); Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 5) lost to Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 7.5).
Group C: Soumya Swaminathan (Ind, 3) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 7.5); Ray Robson (Usa, 7.5) drew with Nils Grandelius (Usa, 5.5); Robin Swinkels (Ned, 6.5) drew with Kjetil Lie (Nor, 5.5); Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 5) beat Robin van Kampen (Ned, 7); Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 6) drew with Li Chao (Chn, 9); Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 5) lost to Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 2.5); Benjamin Bok (Ned, 6.5) beat Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 7).
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