By IANS
Netherlands : World champion Viswanathan Anand missed out on a chance to register his first win as he let slip an opportunity in his game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Aerbaijan in the second round of the Corus Chess Tournament.
However, the 36-move draw from an opening in the Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz variation, helped Anand get onto the scoreboard Sunday after his unexpected loss to another Azerbaijani, the young Teimour Radjabov in the first round.
The tournament, which has 14 players in each of the three main sections, runs till Jan 27.
The second round saw five of the seven matches end in draws, with Armenian Lev Aronian pulling off a fine win over Boris Gelfand with black pieces and young Swede Magnus Carlsen scoring his second straight win over Pavel Elianov of Ukraine. Aronian and Carlsen now have a perfect two points from two games.
In the other groups, Pentala Harikrishna scored his first win beating China’s Hou Yifan in 55 moves from a game in the French defence. Harikrishna is now part of the six-way lead in Group B, where his colleague Koneru Humpy bounced back from a first round loss to draw with Ian Nepomniachtchi in 34 moves of a Dutch game.
In Group C, Parimarjan Negi suffered his second straight loss, losing to Arik Braun of Germany in an English Symmetrical opening in just 31 moves.