Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen belted out moves at an unusual pace during their drawn encounter in the fifth and final classical round game of the Zurich Chess Challenge on Monday.
In what looked like a warm-up for the five-round rapid leg scheduled for Tuesday, both players played out a 40-move draw in Ruy Lopez in just over 70 minutes.
The first classical game between the two after their World championship clash in November last saw Anand resort to his trusted Spanish opening but could not trouble Carlsen, playing black, at any point. A series of exchanges left the players with opposite-colour bishops and equal pawns. Draw was signed soon thereafter.
When the Anand-Carlsen game ended, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian had played only 22 moves, while the clash between Hikaru Nakamura and Boris Gelfand was only 10 moves old.
Caruana went on to improve his position and moved closer to upstaging Aronian after 44 moves. Nakamura and Gelfand battled for over three hours to find peace in 21 moves.
On Tuesday, the round-robin action in rapid format, with players facing each other with different colours from the ones they played in the classical format, will decide the title.
The results (fifth round):
Viswanathan Anand (2) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 4); Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 1.5) v Levon Aronian (Arm, 3) in progress; Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1.5).
