Anand made it four in a row at the Mainz Chess Classic in Mainz, Germany, with a comfortable draw in 27 moves of a Ruy Lopez Closed against Alexei Shirov in the seventh game of their eight-game match.
With this draw, Anand took an unbeatable lead of 4.5-2.5 with one last game to go. Even if Shirov wins, Anand will win the title and will be back to defend it next year. In the seventh game, the Indian ace had white but was happy to get the draw and the title with it, with one game to spare.
In the past, Anand has beaten Vladimir Kramnik, Ruslan Ponomariov and Judit Polgar in one-on-one matches in Mainz, where he is very popular.
This is Anand's third big title of the year, having already bagged the Corus Grandmasters title in Wijk Aan Zee in January and the Dortmund title last month. The winner of the Chess Oscar for 2003 could well be the strongest claimant for the same award in 2004. He still has the Chess Olympiad to further his claims, besides some rapid events in the latter part of the year.
Earlier, in the sixth games on Saturday evening, he extended his lead over Alexei Shirov in the Chess Classic of Mainz, dubbed as the duel of the World champions, at the Rheingoldhalle on the banks of River Rhine. That win gave him a 4-2 up lead. He sealed his win with a draw in seventh.
The third day once again saw two Ruy Lopez games, one each in closed and Open variations. Out of the six games, the two players have been engaged in the Ruy Lopez five times, the only exception being the first game, a French Rubinstein.
As Shirov looked off colour Anand found the right combinations to crush the Latvian born Spaniard in just 30 moves. Though the game so far have been interesting, including the draws, it has been very clear that Anand has been the dominant player.
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