28th March, 2003

LOOKING for his third Amber title, world number three Vishy Anand, who
has won previously in 1994 and 1997, takes a slender lead into the
crucial final round of the 12th edition of the tournament taking place
at the Vista Palace Hotel in Monte Carlo.

With just one more round remaining in the 12-player double round robin
tournament that uniquely combines blindfold and rapidplay games in each
round, Anand holds a half point lead over his nearest rivals Veselin
Topalov of Bulgaria and Linares champion Peter Leko of Hungary in the
overall combined standings. However, in the final round, Anand faces a
potentially difficult encounter with nearest rival Topalov - a match up
that could ultimately decide the overall winner of the $193,250
tournament.

Defending champion Alexander Morozevich has slipped to fourth spot in
the combined standings, while Boris Gelfand was knocked totally out of
contention by being relegated from fourth to sixth position in the space
of just two rounds, when the Israeli lost to world champion Vladimir
Kramnik by 0.5-1.5 in round nine, and by a similar margin to Alexei
Shirov in round ten.

In the blindfold event, Kramnik leads on 7.5/10, a full point ahead of
Morozevich; while in the rapidplay, Evgeny Bareev leads on 7.5/10, half
a point ahead of Anand.

Combined standings: 1 V Anand (India) 13/20; 2-3 P Leko (Hungary), V
Topalov (Bulgaria) 12.5; 4 A Morozevich (Russia) 12; 5 V Kramnik
(Russia), 11.5; 6 B Gelfand (Israel) 11; 7-8 A Shirov, (Spain), E Bareev
(Russia) 10; 9 Z Almasi (Hungary) 9; 10 V Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 8; 11 L Van
Wely (Netherlands) 7.5; 12 L Ljubojevic (Yugoslavia) 3.

A Shirov - B Gelfand
Amber Blindfold, (10)
Petroff's Defence
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 d4 d5 6 Bd3 Nc6 7 0-0 Be7 8 c4
Nb4 9 Be2 0-0 10 Nc3 Bf5 11 a3 Nxc3 12 bxc3 Nc6 13 Re1 Re8 14 cxd5 Qxd5
15 Bf4 Rac8 16 Qa4 Bd7 17 Rab1 Qf5 18 Bg3 Bf8 19 Rb5 Qf6 20 Rxb7 Nd8 21
Qxd7 Nxb7 22 Be5 Qd8 23 Qg4 Nd6 24 h4 Rb8 25 c4 f6 26 c5 fxe5 27 cxd6
cxd6 28 dxe5 Be7 29 Bd3 Rf8 30 Qh5 g6 31 Bxg6 hxg6 32 Qxg6+ Kh8 33 Re4
Rxf3 34 Qh6+ Kg8 35 Rg4+ 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON