Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): World Cup champion Viswanathan Anand regained the joint lead with a crushing victory against former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the fifth round of 65th Corus Chess tournament on Friday.

Latvia-born Spaniard Alexei Shirov ripped apart the defences of Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and joined Anand and world's best woman player Judit Polgar at the top of the tables on 3.5 points.

Following the three leaders were Dutch GM Loek Van Wely and defending champion Evgeny Bareev of Russia on 3 points each while Kramnik, GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and GM Alexander Grischuk of Russia trailed them by half a point.

In the Grandmaster "B" tournament, former world junior Girls champion Koneru Humpy suffered another defeat outsmarted by top seed Grandmaster Zhang Zhong of China in a long drawn game.

Zhong (4.5 points) maintained his sole lead with the victory. The high point of this section was the victory of 15-year-old local hope Daniel Stellwagen who beat GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany. An International Master, Stellwagen is now strongly gunning for a Grandmaster norm in the event having tallied 4 points.

Anand has played more than 80 games against Karpov in various tournaments and holds a plus score against the legendary player.

PTI