AMSTERDAM. Dec 31: In-dia's Viswanathan Anand and British Grandmaster Mic- hael Adams shared first place on Thursday In the Professional Chess Association tournament in Groningen, each winning 35.000 dollar prize money, reports Reuter.

They, together with Russians Vladimir Kramnik and Sergei Tlviakov. American-domiciled Grandmasters Gata Kamsky and Boris Gulko and Ukrainian Oleg Romanishin. will go forward to the next stage of the PCA world chess title.

The compettttan-wffl-'Cfrinir-* nate in a match against PCA world champion Garrl Kasparov, who last year broke away from the World Chess Federatlon(FIDE) to form the rebel PCA organisation.

Within a few minutes of the start of the final round Anand. 24. agreed a draw with Kramnik and Adams. 22. drew with Kamsky. giving the two leaders an unbeatable 7-1/2 points from 11.

Experts said two such short draws were probably no. coincidence. since it was fairly common for Grandmasters to agree to play for safety when avoiding a loss Is crucial.

This sort of thing has happened plenty of times before." one of the organisers told Reuters.

Having completed their own games in less than a dozen moves Anand and Adams had to wait for hours to discover if they would be Joined on Use vic-

tory podium by any ceasing players. But in the end all but one of the leading players’ games were drawn.

American Joel Benjamin defaulted after a fierce struggle with Romanishin by falling to complete 40 moves in the time stipulated. The Ukrainian

squeezed through to the next stage of the PCA World Championship.

"Romanishin comprehensively outplayed Benjamin In the trouble." one of the organisers said.

Anand, ranked world number three and the world s fastest and arguably most exciting attacking player, is the favourite to emerge from the PCA selection process to challenge Kasparov.

US computer chip maker Intel will sponsor four PCA 16-player rapid tournaments next year in Moscow. Paris. London and New York, each with a prize

fund of 160.000 US dollars.

The first is likely to be played inside the Kremlin. PCA officials say. Six more such events are planned for 1995.

Intel will also sponsor the entire PCA World. Championship cycle, spending 400.000 US dollars on the knockout matches in 1994 and up to 3 million US dollar on the actual world title match.

In the absence of Kasparov in the FIDE listings. Anand is also favourite to challenge Russian Anatoly Karpov for the official World Championships.

Among notable performances liadbigtougbipurnament were joint eignfn pfacihgsby Julio" Granda Zuniga of Peru and by seventeen-year-old Judit Polgar of Hungary.

Judit is the youngest and most powerful of the three Polgar sisters, and is now ranked 18th strongest player — male or female — in the world.

Final standings after 11 rounds:

1-Anand (India). Adams (Britain) 7-1/2 points.

3-Gulko (USA). Kramnik . (Russia). Kamsky (USA), Tlviakov (Russia). Romanishin (Ukraine) 7 points.

8-Alexei Shirov (Latvia). Jeroen Piket (Netherlands). Sergey Dolmatov (Russia). Eric Lobron (Germany). Ivan Sokolov (Bosrria), Robert Hubner (Germany). Granda Zuniga (Peru), Rafael Vaganaln (Armenia). Predrag Nikolic (Bosnia). Judit Polgar (Hungary). Lembit Oil (Estonia). Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia) 6-1 /2 points.