By Xinhua
Mexico City : The world’s eight best chess players all drew their first round games in the World Chess Championship here in less than 30 moves each.
The highest-rated player Anand Viswanathan of India tied Israeli Boris Gelfand in 22 moves, while Alexander Grishuk of Russia shared the point with Hungarian Peter Leko in 28 moves, the longest first-round game.
World champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia tied his first game Thursday against countryman Peter Svidler in 23 moves; Alexander Morozevich of Russia drew Armenian Levon Aronian in 25 moves.
The Kramnik-Svidler game was a Queen’s Gambit opening, Morozevich-Aronian was an Indo-Benoni variation, Anand-Gelfand was a Petrov Defence opening, and Grischuk-Leko was a Ruy Lopez opening.
The second-round games Friday feature Svidler-Leko, Gelfand-Grischuk, Aronian-Anand and Kramnik-Morozevich, the first named playing with white pieces.
A win fetches one point, a loss nothing while each player gets half a point for a drawn game.
The championship, which opened Thursday in Mexico City’s Historic Centre, offers prize money of $1.3 million. The winner collects $300,000 while the last placed player is guaranteed $60,000. The tournament ends Sep 30.