Kramnik cracks Anand, Parimarjan vanquishes van der Wiel

Wijk Aan Zee, Jan 20 (UNI) Viswanathan Anand bowed to world champion Vladimir Kramnik, while Delhi prodigy Parimarjan Negi crashed through GM John van der Wiel's defence as India had a mixed day in the sixth round of the Corus chess tournament.

After six rounds, Teymour Radjabov top the chart with five points, a full point ahead of the Veselin Topalov-Vladimir Kramnik duo.

Anand, Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian share the fourth spot with 3.5 points each.

Anand locks horn with table-topper Radjabov in the seventh round later today.

Playing with black, Anand defended his citadel well for major part of the game that lasted 53 moves before the Russian walked away with full one points.

This was Kramnik's first win over the Indian since the start of the millennium.

''We hardly ever beat each other,'' Kramnik later said.

Against Anand, Kramnik employed the Catalan which he also used in his match against Topalov, but tried a new idea, improving on the Ponomariov-Anand played in the first round of this event.

Despite the tricky situation, Anand defended tenaciously in the minor piece ending but Kramnik showed great accuracy by bringing the king to the centre before black could set up a possible blockade.

In the final position, despite the minimal material left on the board, black had no hope to survive and Anand gave up.

In other sixth round matches in Group A, Alexander Motylev split points with Magnus Carlsen, Peter Svidler drew with Levon Aronian, Teymour Radjabov signed truce with Ruslan Ponomariov, Veselin Topalov ended with hourse even with David Navara, Loek van Wely was held by Sergey Tiviakov while Sergey Karjakin got the better of Alexey Shirov.

Meanwhile, in Group C, Parimarjan Negi put up an impressive tactical display to get the better of local favourite John van der Wiel's defence.

With this win, the Delhi prodigy remains in the second position, along with three others, with four points in his kitty.

Russian International Master Ian Nepomniachtchi tops the table with 5.5 points.

Negi will have black in his seventh round game against Swede Grandmaster Emanuel Berg later today.

UNI