Anand Beats Kramnik At Corus

Vishy Anand (pictured) has been virtually anonymous this year at Corus, with his efforts clearly directed more towards preparations for his upcoming world title defence against Veselin Topalov.

However, in today's penultimate round he inflicted Vladimir Kramnik's first defeat of the event, thereby leaving himself as the only undefeated player and handing the sole lead to Magnus Carlsen into the bargain.

It looked at one point as though Anand was settling for a draw by repetition, but he tried for more and achieved connected passed pawns that Kramnik couldn't hold back.

Carlsen had no such problems earning a draw against Leko, who has been a difficult opponent for him in the past. Dominguez v Ivanchuk and Caruana v Nakamura were hard fought draws, and the only other winner was Jan Smeets who caught his compatriot Van Wely in some sharp opening preparation for a quick knockout.

The draw for tomorrow's final round in the 'A' Group is:

In Group 'B' Anish Giri battled for 120 moves against back-marker Varuzhan Akobian a pawn up in a rook ending, before finally conceding a draw.  Nevertheless, Giri is a point clear of the field and only needs a draw in the final round against Negi to secure the tournament victory and earn his place in the 'A' Group next year.

In Group 'C' Li Chao wrapped up the tournament victory by agreeing a very quick draw (in nine moves!) against his opponent.  So the ratings favourite lived up to his billing, and will feature in Group 'B' in 2011.

The results in round 12:

The standings with one round to go:

Selected games below.  All games are available at the official website.