Anand draws with Svidler, stays in lead

Linares, Mar 4 (UNI) Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand held on to his joint top position on the leaderboard despite clinching a second successive draw, as his game with Peter Svidler also ended in a deadlock in the ninth round of the Morelia-Linares Super GM Chess tournament here.

Anand shares lead with Magnus Carlsen on 5.5 points, who also had a draw with Lev Aronian.

Vassily Ivanchuk, who also had a draw with Veselin Topalov, is the sole third, half a point behind the joint leaders, while Topalov and Aronian were tied fourth with 4.5 points each.

The NIIT-backed Indian played the Petroff defence against Svidler, unlike his preveious game where played a Sicilian Najdorf, but eventually had to settle for a draw. Svidler, who played with white pieces, used a move that was introduced by Kramnik in 2003 against Anand.

The move used by Svidler in some ways give black pieces the chance to make a clear way forward later to be caught in crisis.

But Anand, with black, handled the situation well and by the time of the 32nd move, he was at par with his opponent, when the two decided to call it truce, soon after the first time control and the 41st move of the game.

In other games, Topalov managed to save a white game against the clearly superior Ivanchuk, who got into time trouble and had to accept a draw, while Leko lost badly to Alexander Morozevich to join him at the tail-end of the cross table.

The seven rounds each tournament is being played in two legs Morelia, Mexico and Linares, Spain.

Standings after Round 9: 1. Anand and Carlsen 5.5; 3. Ivanchuk 5.0; 4. Aronian and Svidler 4.5; 6. Topalov 4.0; 7. Leko and Morozevich 3.5 UNI XC HSB SSC PM1407