By IANS,
Bilbao (Spain0 : World champion Vishwanathan Anand was unable to break through the defence of young Teimour Radjabov and settled for his second straight draw at the Bilbao Grand Slam Final Chess.
The second round Wednesday produced all three draws, even though players are discouraged from giving or accepting draws.
Norwegian youngster Magnus Carlsen, the only player to register a win – which he did in the first round, continues to lead the table field with four points, while Anand has two with two draws.
The tournament for the first time is following football-like scoring with three points for winning a game and one for a draw. But for elo rating purpose it will still be one for a win, half for a draw and none for a loss.
This new points system was adopted to encourage aggressive play.
Anand played solidly system against the Sicilian Sveshnikov but failed to get any significant advantage from the opening. Radjabov came out with an interesting pawn sacrifice on the 12th move.
But Anand returned the extra pawn and opted to complete his development. However, the game stayed equal. Radjabov went in for piece trade and that simplified the game. The players agreed to split the point in a dead draw in opposite colour bishop ending after 34 moves.
Of the three draws, the most interesting was the Sicilian Dragon between Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen. It had an exchange sacrifice, a piece sacrifice but finally ended with a perpetual.
In the third round, Anand will clash with Lev Aronian, who has white. In the other games, Radjabov meets Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen clashed with Topalov.
Points as per Bilbao system: Carlsen (4); Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov and Radjabov 2 each; Aronian 1
Moves in second round: Anand (2798) – Radjabov (2744) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c4 b4 12.Nc2 0-0 13.Ncxb4 Nxb4 14.Nxb4 Qb6 15.Nd5 Qxb2 16.Bd3 Bd8 17.0-0 Be6 18.Qb3 Qxb3 19.axb3 Rb8 20.Rfb1 Bxd5 21.cxd5 a5 22.Ra4 Bb6 23.b4 axb4 24.Raxb4 Ba7 25.Rxb8 Rxb8 26.Rxb8+ Bxb8 27.Kf1 Kf8 28.Ke2 Ke7 29.g3 Ba7 30.h4 Bd4 31.Kf3 Ba7 32.Ke2 Bd4 33.Kf3 Ba7 34.Ke2 Bd4 draw.