Anand continues to dominate

Viswanathan Anand continued to hold a two-point lead over his nearest rivals in the 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament in Monaco.

The Indian ace won one and drew one game against arch-rival Vladimir Kramnik in the fourth round, and carried his total to 7.5 points from a maximum possible of eight. 

In eight games so far, Anand has won seven -- in a row -- and drawn one rapid game against Kramnik.

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In blindfold, which was played first, Anand continued his brilliant run beating Kramnik in 52 moves of a Petroff defence.

Anand had white pieces. It was a game in which both tried to stretch each other in their visualisation of the game before Anand emerged victorious.

Anand was better most of the way through and missed a number of better continuations. 

In rapid, with Kramnik having white, the Russian finally halted Anand's winning streak. It was the first draw for Anand after seven wins.

Anand played the Berlin and after 24 fairly uninteresting moves the game was drawn.

Shirov emerged from the dumps to beat Vallejo Pons 2-0, while Topalov continued to languish with just 1.5 points from eight. 

Results:
Blindfold: Round 4: Vallejo Pons lost to Shirov; Topalov drew with Ivanchuk; Anand beat Kramnik; Svidler lost to Van Wely; Leko drew with Gelfand; Morozevich beat Bareev.

Blindfold Standings after Round 4:

1. Anand 4.0;
2. Kramnik 3.0;
3. Svidler, Leko, Morozevich and Ivanchuk 2.5;
7. Gelfand 2.0;
8. Van Wely 1.5;
9. Bareev, Shirov and Vallejo Pons 1.0;
12. Topalov 0.5.

Results:
Rapid: Round 4: Shirov beat Vallejo Pons; Ivanchuk beat Topalov; Kramnik drew with Anand; Van Wely lost to Svidler; Gelfand drew with Leko; Bareev lost to Morozevich.

Rapid Standings after Round 4:

1. Anand 3.5;
2. Morozevich and Ivanchuk 3.0;
4. Leko and Svidler 2.5;
6. Shirov 2.0;
7. Kramnik, Gelfand and Bareev1.5;
10. Van Wely, Vallejo Pons and Topalov 1.0.

Combined Standings after Round 4:

1. Anand 7.5;
2. Morozevich and Ivanchuk 5.5;
4. Svidler and Leko 5.0;
6. Kramnik 4.5;
7. Gelfand 3.5;
8. Shirov 3.0;
9. Van Wely and Bareev 2.5;
11. Vallejo Pons 2.0;
12. Topalov 1.5.