| The eighth round of the major chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee further fragmented the leading group, and far from being in favor of the Russian participants. Viswanathan Anand won the third victory in a row. This time his victim was the noticeably “floating” Evgeniy Bareev. The Muscovite is clearly out of shape and does not justify the advance payment from the organizers who invited him to the tournament for his old services (Bareev won Wijk aan Zee in 2002 and was third in 2003). Evgeniy suffered another, already third, fiasco in the French defense. True, the debut has nothing to do with it. The Muscovite not only missed the opportunity to seize the initiative, but also came under attack. Vishy was merciless and did not give a single chance to escape. He effectively sacrificed a piece, sending the enemy king on a long voyage that ended in the loss of the queen, and now confidently retains the lead with six points. But the paths of the closest pursuers of the Indian grandmaster - Vladimir Kramnik and Michael Adams, who played among themselves - diverged.
It became obvious that the world champion was not in the best shape. And although Kramnik approached the eighth round with a positive balance of “plus two,” his play looked unconvincing. Suffice it to recall that this “plus” included gifts from Peter Svidler, who resigned (as it turned out after the game) in a drawn position, as well as from Zhang Zhong, who made an obvious mistake in an almost equal endgame. This time, having successfully completed the opening in the game against Michael Adams, Kramnik had to limit himself to simplifying the position with a likely draw. However, he unreasonably forced the game and came under attack, which the Englishman carried out flawlessly. After this victory, Adams is in second place with 5.5 points.
Peter Leko also broke his draw streak. After Viorel Bologan, who was playing black, was seduced by an erroneous combination with a rook sacrifice, Peter returned the trophy and launched a counter attack on the king. As a result, Leko is in third place with five points. Veselin Topalov could have reached him, but he missed his chance. After Alexey Shirov, having successfully overcome the reefs of the Russian defense, made a gross mistake and was left without a pawn, Topalov immediately “blown” it and went for a world battle. The Bulgarian grandmaster shares fourth-sixth places with Russians Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler.
The game of the four-time Russian champion also does not feel its former power. And this is not surprising. Last year, Svidler played more than 80 classical control games (twice as many as Anand), and one feels that he lacks energy. So in the game with Ivan Sokolov, the St. Petersburg grandmaster not only managed to successfully implement his favorite Grunfeld Defense with Black, but even gained an advantage. However, Peter managed to play through to a difficult position and miraculously saved the game. Oleg STETSKO
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