Sandes (Norway): The clash between two World Champions always promises to be an intriguing one and the third round of the ongoing Norway Super Chess tournament was no different. Reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand was in his element and scored a brilliant victory over his 2010, World title Challenger, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, late Friday night.
The encounter was an engrossing one, literally keeping the game-followers on tenterhooks and culminated with a flashy stroke by Anand. If it can be recollected Anand had retained his World title with a last round victory over Topalov in 2010 when the scores stood level.
Anand was pleased with his effort and later at the post game press conference commented “This was one of these dream Najdorfs that I get sometimes and obviously I was pleased.”
Meanwhile Sergey Karjakin of Russsia defeated Wang Hao of China which incidentally is his third consecutive victory to maintain his sole vigil at the top of the points tally with 3 points. Anand and Aronian follow behind with 2 points each.
Magnus Carlsen was held to a draw, his third one on the trot by Hikaru Nakamura in another exciting game. The encounter between Peter Svidler and Hikaru Nakamura ended in a draw while Teimour Radjabov scored his first victory over John Ludvig Hammer of Norway.
Saturday is a rest day for this 10 player Round Robin event and the fourth round will be played late Sunday evening. The playing venue is spread across four locations around a 20km radius in the Stavanger region of Norway.
Anand had adopted the Sicilian Najdorf yesterday with the Black pieces and today faced it against Topalov with the White pieces. The players followed a game between Leko and Anand played this year at the Tata Steel tournament this January but Topalov deviated on the 16th turn, an indication that he had done some homework especially for Anand.
By the 22nd turn Anand appeared better but Topalov in his inimitable style preferred to play actively, infiltrating Anand’s territory with his queen and bishop. However by the 30th turn, Topalov’s pieces looked stranded on the wrong squares.
Thereafter it was vintage Anand as he moved his queen superbly and precisely, attacking and defending at the same time.
Topalov was virtually forced to give up his queen for a rook and minor piece as Anand indulged in a tactical stroke much to the delight of the spectators, even though a simpler and faster victory was in sight. However the game was totally out of Topalov’s hand by then and he preferred to resign rather than prolong the agony.