31st March, 2003

WITH a decisive final round blindfold win over nearest rival Veselin
Topalov of Bulgaria, India's Vishy Anand extended his lead at the top
for a decisive victory ahead of the field in the 12th Amber Tournament
in Monte Carlo.

Anand, who beat Topalov 1.5-0.5 for a final tally of 14.5/22, took the
title a full point ahead of Peter Leko of Hungary and defending champion
Alexander Morozevich of Russia. This was Anand's third victory at the
Amber tournament, his others being in 1994 and 1997.

However, unlike Anand's last victory here in 1997, when he dominated the
event to take all three titles (Rapid, Blindfold and Combined), the
Indian ace only won the champion's crown this year - the first time in
the history of this unique event, the only one in the chess world that
combines the disciplines of Rapid and Blindfold, that the overall winner
hasn't also took one of the individual titles.

The winner of the Rapid event was Evgeny Bareev of Russia on 8/11; a
half point ahead of Anand and Leko. In the Blindfold event, world
champion Vladimir Kramnik took the title on 8/11, a full point ahead of
Morozevich.

Maecenas Mr JJ Van Oosterom, a wealthy Dutch chess enthusiast who is
also one of the world's leading correspondence grandmasters, sponsors
this annual tournament held in Monte Carlo to celebrate the birthday of
his daughter, Melody Amber. The prize fund for the event is $193,250
with awards for the best scores in each section and overall.

Combined standings: 1 V Anand (India) 14.5/22; 2-3 P Leko (Hungary), A
Morozevich (Russia) 13.5; 4-5 V Kramnik (Russia), V Topalov (Bulgaria)
13; 6 B Gelfand (Israel) 12; 7 A Shirov (Spain); 8 E Bareev (Russia) 11;
9 Z Almasi (Hungary) 9.5; 10 V Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 9; 11 L Van Wely
(Netherlands) 8; 12 L Ljubojevic, (Yugoslavia) 3.5.

V Anand - V Topalov
Amber Blindfold, (11)
Sicilian Sveshnikov
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Nd5 Nxd5 8
exd5 Nb8 9 c4 Be7 10 Bd3 0-0 11 0-0 Bd7 12 a4 f5 13 c5 Bxb5 14 axb5 e4
15 c6 Nd7 16 Be2 Ne5 17 f4 exf3 18 gxf3 Bf6 19 Kh1 b6 20 Ra2 Qc7 21 f4
Ng6 22 b3 Ne7 23 Bc4 Rae8 24 Re1 Nc8 25 Rae2 Rxe2 26 Rxe2 Qf7 27 Re6 Re8
28 Qe2 Kf8 29 Ba3 Rxe6 30 dxe6 Qe7 31 Bd5 g6 32 Qc2 Qc7 33 Bb2 Qg7 34
Bxf6 Qxf6 35 c7 Qd4 36 Bb7 Qxf4 37 Qc4 Qf2 38 Bxc8 Qe1+ 39 Kg2 Qd2+ 40
Kf3 d5 41 Qf4 Qc3+ 42 Kg2 Qc2+ 43 Kh3 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON