23rd January, 2003

At the end of a relatively uneventful day at the Corus Tournament in
Wijk aan Zee, Indian grandmaster and world number three Vishy Anand held
on to the sole lead after a quick draw against Michal Krasenkow of
Poland.

And, with six of the seven games ending in draws (bareev being the only
victor of the round by beating Grishcuk) as the tournament heads for the
final rest day, Anand holds what could be a crucial half point lead over
unlikely challengers for the top spot in Dutch No.1 Loek Van Wely, and
the world's top female player Judit Polgar.

It now seems that Ruslan Ponomariov has received a temporary reprieve
from the world chess federation, FIDE, who had threatened during the
tournament to strip him of his rights as FIDE world champion for his
proposed match with Garry Kasparov. FIDE have now deffered any action
until after the tournament to allow Ponomariov to put the case for his
demands for the match to the Executive Council in person.

The political maneuverings look to be responsible for the bad
performances of both Ukrainians: Ponomariov has uncharacteristically
lost four games so far and languishes perilously close to the bottom,
and Ivanchuk, whom FIDE may replace Ponomariov with as Kasparov's
opponent, has now made his ninth consecutive draw. Ivanchuk has now
matched the dubious achievements of Belgium aristocrat Count Alberic
O'Kelly de Galway, who drew all his games in the nine-round 1957 edition
of the tournament.

Standings: 1 V Anand 6/9; 2-3 L Van Wely, J Polgar 5.5; 4-6 A Shirov, A
Grischuk, E Bareev 5; 7-11 V Ivanchuk, V Kramnik, A Karpov, V Topalov, T
Radjabov 4.5; 12 M Krasenkow 3.5; 13 R Ponomariov 3; 14 J Timman 2.

R Ponomariov - T Radjabov
Corus 'A', (8)
King's Indian Defence
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 d4 0-0 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7
9 b4 Nh5 10 Re1 f5 11 Ng5 Nf6 12 f3 Kh8 13 Rb1 h6 14 Ne6 Bxe6 15 dxe6
fxe4 16 fxe4 Nc6 17 Nd5 Ng8 18 Bd3 Nd4 19 Qg4 g5 20 Qh3 c6 21 Ne3 Qf6 22
Ng4 Qe7 23 Be3 Nxe6 24 g3 Qd7 25 Rf1 d5 26 Rf5 dxc4 27 Bxc4 Nd4 28 Rxf8
Rxf8 29 Qh5 Qd6 30 Kg2 b5 31 Bf7 Nc2 32 Bc5 Qd2+ 33 Nf2 Nf6 34 Qg6 Ng4
35 Kg1 Nce3 36 Bxe3 Nxe3 37 h4 Qe2 38 Qh5 g4 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON, Press Officer