Erring Anand loses match, lead to Kamasky

Sofia, Bulgaria, May 13: After registering back to back victories with black pieces, Super Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand could not capitalise on the advantage of white in the third round and lost both the tie and the lead to American GM Gata Kamasky in the M-tel Masters here.

The other two games played between Frenchman Etienne Bacrot and Russian Peter Svidler, and World Champion Bulgarian Veselin Topalov and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine ended in draws.

After three rounds, Kamasky tops the chart with 2.5 points followed by both Anand and Svidler at two points. Ponomariov and Topalov have a point each while Barcot brings up the rear with half a point.

After drubbing Bacrot and Topalov, Anand was being considered as favourite to win against Kamasky but while the World Rapid Chess Champion erred, the latter played it cool and walked away with full points in what could have been an easy draw.

Playing with white Anand opened the game with his favourite e4 and Kamsky replied with e5 and then the game continued on Ruy Lopez pattern. Anand looked determined to annex the third game also but met with a tough opposition.

In the middle game, Anand made a mistake with f3 on the 32nd move and started drifting away from the game. Realising his errors Anand tried to salvage a draw but in the process he blundered in the end game and lost the match to Kamasky.

Later Anand was quick to admit his mistake and said he frittered away what could have been a simple draw.

''Basically Rook ending was slightly more unpleasant than I had thought. I thought it was a fairly simple draw but then you have to make one or two right decisions,'' Anand told UNI after the match.

''Somehow I just drifted and than possibly F3 was a blunder. Even after I could have saved the game at some point but I blundered in the pawn ending and it's all gone,'' he added.

Anand takes on Ruslan Ponomariov in the fourth round.

Results (Round 3): Viswanathan Anand (IND) lost to Gata Kamsky (US) Etienne Bacrot (FRA) drew with Peter Svidler (RUS) Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) drew with Veselin Topalov (BUL) Standing (after Round 3) 1. Gata Kamsky (US) 2.5 point 2-3 Viswanathan Anand (IND) 2 points Peter Svidler (RUS) 2 points 4-5 Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) 1 point Veselin Topalov (BUL) 1 point 6 Etienne Bacrot (FRA) 0.5 point Pairing (fourth round) Etienne Bacrot (Fra) vs Veselin Topalov (Bul) Viswanathan Anand (Ind) vs Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) Gata Kamsky (US) vs Peter Svidler (Rus)

UNI