The front-running trio got company from India's Viswanathan Anand, who was awarded the 500 guilder spectators' prize for his fine victory with White over Dutch champion Predrag Nikolic. Viswanathan Anand broke through against Nikolic's Stonewall Defence to take the daily spectators' prize . This is an interesting way of breaking down the Dutch Stonewall. Apart from supporting a potential Bf4 challenging Bd6, the ultimate idea behind it is for control of the all-important e5 square in the Stonewall. White's advantage is clear.
More open lines leading to the Black king ultimately proves decisive.
Moving out of the way of a potential check on d4 and at the same time clearing the way for the rook to come into the attack via the g-file. Anand's coordination is superb. The knight on b8 is a sorry piece. Qd1 heading for h5 would have put Nikolic out of his misery a bit earlier. Jan Timman was perhaps a little fortunate to join the leaders after round 2.