Anand scores first win in Dortmund chess 4th rd

Dortmund, June 28 (UNI) After three drawn games, Viswanathan Anand returned to his fluent best to outplay Arkadij Naiditch of Germany in the fourth round and register his first win at the Sparkassen Super Grandmasters Chess tournament here.

Anand, who began the day at joint third, now shares second spot with Evegny Alekseev of Russia with 2.5 points, half a point behind sole leader Vladimir Kramnik of Russia who also scored a convincing win over Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

Two of the four games in the fourth round produced results, a quite contrast to a series of draws in third round.

Anand was up against Ruy Lopez defence from Naiditsch, who has, of late, produced some good results with it.

The Indian needed to score some points and had to take some risky moves in the early middlegame though it exposed him to attack from his opponent.

That was the only time Naiditsch could perhaps have seized the initiative but he failed to do so. Even when Anand reached an ending with an extra pawn, Naiditsch had his pieces active and could possibly have drawn. But the wily Indian grandmaster outplayed him and eked out a good win.

Meanwhile, Kramnik surged ahead as sole leader with a convincing win over young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. It was Kramnik's second victory in four games.

In other games, overnight joint leader Alekseev of Russia drew with Peter Leko of Hungary and Boris Gelfand of Israel split points with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.

Carlsen's opening moves went seriously wrong. His 16th move appeared to be a novelty, but Kramnik made a strong reply and took control of the game and won it without much resistance.

In the fifth round, Anand will face Mamedyarov with black pieces. Carlsen meets Gelfand while, Leko will play with white against Kramnik, so will Naiditsch against Alekseev.

Results of Round 4: Kramnik beat Carlsen; Alekseev drew with Leko; Anand drew with Naiditsch; Gelfand drew with Mamedyarov Standings after Round 4: 1. Kramnik (3.0); 2. Alekseev, Anand (2.5); 4. Leko, Mamedyarov (2.0); 6. Gelfand, Carlsen (1.5); 8. Naiditsch (1.0) UNI