Bacrot shocks Anand in Pearl Spring Chess

Just when he was sitting pretty with a black-piece win against arch-rival Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, Anand was in for the biggest surprise of this season as Bacrot, once the youngest Grandmaster in the world, played energetically to catch the Indian ace off guard and score one of the biggest wins of his career.

Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen of Norway salvaged some anxious moments and finally played out a draw with Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan, while in the other game of the day Topalov too could not make any headway and had to split the points with Wang Yue of China.

With six rounds to come in this six-player double round robin tournament, Carlsen took his tally to three points and he is now followed by Bacrot a half point behind.

Anand now stands sole third on two points while Topalov, Wang Yue and Gashimov are sharing the fourth spot on 1.5 points apiece.

It turned out to be a tough day for Anand in the Slav defence game wherein the Indian went for a well-analysed piece sacrifice variation.

As is typical of the opening, Anand got four pawns in exchange for his piece, but the nature of black pawns remained fragile.

To Bacrot's credit, he went for a relatively less played system, which should have been equal but Anand was caught off-guard in the exchanges that took place intermittently leading to a two pawn deficit for the Indian.

Technically, things were not easy but Bacrot did not let the opportunity slip and won in 46 moves.

Carlsen was also made to sweat for once. Playing white, Gashimov was seen pressing for an advantage in the middle game arising out of a Breyer variation in the Ruy Lopez that Carlsen has been frequenting these days.

After a methodical king side pressure, Gashimov shifted his gaze on the other flank and successfully weakened a couple of black pawns. Carlsen had to part with a pawn and he finally secured the half point with some perfect defence.

The longest game of the day lasted 76 moves.

Earlier, Topalov found nothing worthwhile with white against Wang Yue in a Slav defence game.

Facing a side variation early, Topalov went for uncompromising play but the Chinese was quite up the task in the middle game. Topalov won a pawn after trading the queens but there was a lot of pressure on his pawns that forced the sharing of points.

Results of round IV: Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 2.5) beat V Anand (Ind, 2); Vugar Gashimov (Aze, 1.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 1.5) drew with Wang Yue (Chn, 1.5).

The moves: Bacrot- Anand (black resigned)
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 Bb4 8. e4 Bxe4 9. fxe4 Nxe4 10. Bd2 Qxd4 11. Nxe4 Qxe4+ 12. Qe2 Bxd2+ 13. Kxd2 Qd5+ 14. Kc3 O-O 15. Qe3 b5 16. Be2 Nd7 17. Nxd7 Qxd7 18. Rhd1 Qe7 19. Kc2 a5 20. Bf3 Rac8 21. Qe5 g6 22. axb5 cxb5 23. Qxb5 Rc5 24. Qd7 Qg5 25. Qd4 Rfc8 26. Ra3 Rb5 27. Rd2 Rb4 28. Kd1 Rcb8 29. Ke2 Qb5 30. Ke1 Rxb2 31. Rxb2 Qxb2 32. Qxb2 Rxb2 33. Rxa5 c3 34. Rc5 Rb1+ 35. Ke2 Rc1 36. Kd3 Kg7 37. Rxc3 Rxc3+ 38. Kxc3 f5 39. Kd4 Kf6 40. Bd1 h5 41. Bf3 h4 42. Be2 g5 43. Ba6 g4 44. Bb7 e5+ 45. Kd5 f4 46. Ke4.