Sparkassen chess: Anand draws, stays joint second

By IANS

Dortmund : World No. 1 Viswanathan Anand of India maintained his unbeaten run, but played out a draw against world No. 4 Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the fifth round of Sparkassen Super Grandmasters chess tournament.


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Anand now has three points and is tied second with Russian Evgeny Alekseev, who also drew his fifth round with Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany. Russian Vladmir Kramnik playing with black drew with Peter Leko of Hungary and stayed on top with 3.5 points Friday.

Making it an all-draw round was young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen who drew with the experienced Boris Gelfand of Israel.

Mamedyarov tried an early pawn sacrifice against Anand's unusual Queen's Indian line. Anand returned the material for a position where he was a little worse, on account of his split queenside pawns, but his steady defence held.

The World No. 4 could find no way to progress further despite all efforts and the game was a draw in 69 moves.

Friday's fifth round in Dortmund saw all four games drawn, and none of them terribly exciting. The drawing average is now exactly 75 percent – 15 out of 20 games – with five white and no black wins.

Results of Round 5: Leko drew with Kramnik, Mamedyarov drew with Anand; Carlsen drew with Gelfand; Naiditsch drew with Alekseev

Standings after Round 5: 1. Kramnik 3.5 points; 2. Anand and Alekseev 3.0; 4. Leko and Mamedyarov 2.5; 6. Gelfand and Carlsen 2.0; 8. Naiditsch 1.5

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