Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw as black against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the first round of the London Chess Classic here on Thursday.
The six-player five-round tournament saw local star Michael Adams emerging as early leader following a hard-earned victory over world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana of Italy. The other game between Hikaru Nakamura of United States and Anish Giri of Holland was a tame draw without much action on the board.
With three points under the soccer-like scoring system, Adams enjoys a two point lead over Anand, Kramnik, Nakamura and Giri.
Anand showed that he had prepared well against Kramnik. It was a Semi Slav Botwinnik wherein Kramnik went for the most principled variation and high tactics already mentioned in the theoretical books ensued for a long time.
Nakamura and Giri played a game of shadow boxing with neither able to impress the other out of a Ruy Lopez Berlin.
The results:
Round 1: Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) drew with V. Anand (Ind).
Michael Adams (Eng) beat Fabiano Caruana (Ita).
Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) drew with Anish Giri (Ned).
