Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): With two victories and three draws in the first five rounds, World Cup champion Viswanathan Anand is sitting pretty but he will have to counter tougher challenges in the coming days in the 65th edition of the Corus chess tournament here.

After meeting Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine later on Saturday, Anand plays World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the seventh round before taking on top seed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

Along with Anand, Grandmaster Alexei Shirov of Spain and world's best woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary share the lead on 3.5 points each followed by Dutch GM Loek Van Wely and GM Evegeny Bareev of Russia.

The players had their second rest day on Friday.

In the Grandmaster group 'B' tournament, India's youngest ever Grand Master Koneru Humpy is having a tough time. Humpy has drawn three games while losing the other two.

Humpy is placed a dismal 12th on 1.5 points with eight more rounds remaining. GM Zhang Zhong of China has so far proved his top billing right and is in sole lead with 4.5 points from his five games.

A close second is local hope International Master Daniel Stellwagen, 15, who has been quite impressive and has four points in his kitty after beating three Grand Masters.

For Anand the next three rounds will be crucial. If Anand can outwit these big three, his place at the top is almost assured.

Anand has been brilliant both in attack and defence in the first five rounds. He started with a draw against Azerbaijani sensation Teimour Radjabov and defeated Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, who is having a difficult time, in the second round.

A couple of draws and Anand was back to his attacking best against former World Champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the fifth round.

Polgar has been another star performer devastating two veterans Karpov and Jan Timman of The Netherlands enroute to her plus two score. Polgar plays against Ponomariov and Kramnik in the next two rounds and might find the going tough against these two.

Shirov has been doing excellently too. His two victories have come against Ponomariov and Kramnik and that has made him quite happy as the two were amongst pre- tournament favourites.

In the next two rounds, Shirov plays lowly placed Michael Krasenkow of Poland and Evgeny Bareev of Russia.

Kramnik and Ponomariov have not done justice to their ratings so far. Kramnik's slow start was expected given the fact he has not played against a rival other than the computer in the last two months but two defeats in a span of four games against Ponomariov and Shirov would certainly have shattered the Braingames champion.

PTI