Anand leads world chess championship after seven round

By Xinhua

Mexico City : India’s Viswanathan Anand defeated Russian Alexander Grischuk in a 50-move Ruy-Lopez anti-Marshall Attack to regain sole lead in the World Chess Championship after the seventh round of the 14-round event.


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At the halfway stage, Anand leads with five points followed by Boris Gelfand of Israel in second place half a point behind. Defending world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia is lying third with four points, half a point ahead of Grischuk (3.5).

Levon Aronian of Armenia and Hungarian Peter Leko share the fifth spot with three points while Russians Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich are at the bottom with 2.5 points each.

In the seventh round, Morozevich and Leko played a hard-fought draw in a 60-move Scotch. Svidler and Aronian settled for a short Ruy-Lopez exchange draw while the Kramnik-Gelfand game was a 40-move Anti-Moscow Slav draw.

The eighth round pairing, with players with white pieces first: Svidler-Kramnik, Aronian-Morozevich, Gelfand-Anand and Leko-Grischuk.

All eyes will be on the Gelfand-Anand game since both players are ahead of the rest of the pack in the tournament.

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