Cap d'Agde (France): World Cup champion Viswanathan Anand stormed his way into the quarterfinals with a hard earned victory over former World Champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the seventh and final round game of the league phase that concluded on October 27.

Russian Grandmaster duo of Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk and world's strongest woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary, along with Anand made it to the knockout stage.

Svidler won the group 'B' league phase comprehensively with five points out of a possible seven. Grischuk finished second on 4.5 points, while Judit and Anand tied for third place on four points apiece.

Steely nerves complemented by superior endgame skills spelled success for Anand as he bounced back from the brink of being ousted from the event to be amongst the front runners now.

Anand had an absorbing session of mental boxing against Karpov in the final game.

It was a Queen's Indian where Anand, black, equalized quite comfortably in the queen-less middle game but had to walk a tight rope in the ensuing rook and pawns endgame.

Anand managed to promote one of his pawns as a queen and never looked back though it took a gruelling 98 moves before he could muster the much-required full point.

In the quarterfinals, Anand plays against Ponomariov, who is quite a tough customer in rapid chess.

In Group 'A', Kramnik and Bacrot had an easy route to qualification with a draw amongst themselves in the final round game. Ponomariov made it to the next stage with a draw against Topalov, who had to sweat a lot in the ensuing tiebreak games against Gelfand before winning by a 1.5-0.5 margin.

Results:

Group A: Round 7: Evegeny Bareev (2.5, Rus) lost to Zurab Azmaiparashvili (2.5, Geo); Etienne Bacrot (4.5, Fra) drew Vladimir Kramnik (4.5, Rus); Ruslan Ponomariov (4.5, Ukr) drew Veselin Topalov (3.5, Bul); Michael Adams (2.5, Eng) drew Boris Gelfand (3.5, Isr).

Tie break: Topalov beat Gelfand 1.5-0.5.

Round 6: Kramnik drew Adams; Gelfand lost to Ponomariov; Topalov drew Bareev; Azmaiparashvili drew Bacrot.

Round 5: Bacrot beat Bareev; Ponomariov drew Kramnik; Gelfand beat Topalov; Adams beat Azmaiparashvili.

Group B: Round 7: Judit Polgar (4, Hun) drew Alexander Grischuk (4.5, Rus); Peter Svidler (5, Rus) drew Alexei Shirov (3.5, Esp); Anatoly Karpov (1.5, Rus) lost to Viswanathan Anand (4); Joel Lautier (2, Fra) lost to Peter Leko (3.5, Hun).

Round 6: Grischuk drew Karpov; Anand drew Svidler; Shirov beat Lautier; Leko beat Polgar.

PTI