Celebrating his 45th birthday, five-time world champion Viswanthan Anand played out an easy draw as white against Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the second round of the London Chess Classic, here on Friday.
Anand could not dent Caruana as black out of a Queen’s gambit declined, and the Italian got an easy half-point.
This also resulted in Caruana opening his account on another bloody day in the Classic after a drubbing at the hands of Michael Adams in the first round.
Vladimir Kramnik of Russia scored a crushing victory over Hikaru Nakamura of United States to move up the ladder in this six-player five-round tournament. Kramnik took his tally to four points in the soccer-like scoring system in place here that gives three points for a win and one for a draw.
Anish Giri of Holland also won his first game, outplaying Adams in a one-sided affair. Giri and Kramnik now share the lead on four points each, a point clear of Adams, while Anand stands fourth on two points.
Caruana, with one point from two games, is currently bottom of the table with Nakamura.
The results: Second round: V. Anand (Ind, 2) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 1); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 4) bt Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 1); Anish Giri (Ned, 4) bt Michael Adams (Eng, 3).
