Continuing his fine form, Viswanathan Anand walked away with a comfortable draw against Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to retain his one-point lead after 10 rounds of the World Candidates chess tournament at Khanty Mansisyk, Russia, on Monday.
On a day when nearest challenger Levon Aronian drew with last-man Veselin Topalov in 45 moves and Sergey Karjakin was held by fellow-Russian Dmitry Andreikin in 29 moves, Peter Svidler punished Vladimir Kramnik for a shocking blunder to emerge as the only winner of the day.
With four rounds to go, Anand leads with 6.5 points, one ahead of Aronian. Mamedyarov, Karjakin and Svidler share the third spot at five points.
Anand, who faces Russians in the remaining rounds, drew in just 30 moves of Sicilian Najdorf.
Mamedyarov later admitted that he was expected to play for win to improve his chances. “But when your opponent plays well, doesn’t want to win, doesn’t want to lose, it is very difficult to win with black pieces.”
At one stage, Mamedyarov repeated the moves and expected Anand “to play something else” but understood that his opponent “was not against the idea of a draw.”
Anand said, “If Mamedyarov wanted to play for a win, he should have tried earlier (in the game). I didn’t see a single plan for black to play aggressively. The last position is simply balanced.”
In fact, just when it appeared all boards would end in draws, Kramnik committed a blunder on the 32nd move against Svidler in their Dutch game and eventually suffered his third defeat — second in succession.
The results (10th round): Viswanathan Anand (6.5) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 5.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 4); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 4.5) lost to Peter Svidler (Rus, 5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 4.5) drew with Dmitry Andreikin (Rus, 4.5).
11th round pairings: Kramnik-Anand; Svidler-Aronian; Andreikin-Mamedyarov; Topalov-Karjakin.
