Anand draws against Ivanchuk in first round of chess Grand Slam

Bilbao, Sep 4 (UNI) World champion Viswanathan Anand agreed to a sporting draw with Ukrainian opponent Vassily Ivanchuk in the first round as the Grand Slam of Chess got off to a great start here.

Ivanchuk, despite having an edge against Anand, was under time pressure and at one stage had just 22 seconds to complete the rest of the game.

Anand, who had 28 minutes remaining on his clock, could have simply played out his moves and forced the Ukrainian to lose the game on time.

According to rules, players are allowed 90 minutes for their first 40 moves and then 60 minutes to finish off the rest of the game.

The 35-year-old Indian, however, played the anti-Marshall in the Ruy Lopez, but had problems as world number four Ivanchuk put pressure against the weakened white king and placed himself better, after coming through the time pressure in first control. But he again faced time problems in the later stages.

Anand agreed to a draw after 58 moves.

Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen of Norway beat Levon Aronian of Armenia in the first round, and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan also drew with Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the third game of the six-man tournament.

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