World champion Viswanathan Anand missed out on a winning advantage and played out a draw with Daniel Fridman of Germany in the fourth round of the Grenke Chess Classic here.
With his fourth draw in as many games, Anand slipped to joint third spot in the six player double round-robin tournament.
Italian Fabiano Caruana played yet another fine game to draw as black against Michael Adams of England while in the other game of the day, Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany accounted for compatriot Georg Meier.
ADVERTISEMENT
With six rounds still to come in the category-19 event, Caruana stayed on top with three points out of a possible four and Naiditsch jumped to second spot half a point behind.
Fridman on two points shares the third spot with Anand while Adams is now on fifth spot on 1.5 points. Meier with one point is last.
What could have been a finely crafted victory turned into a missed chance for Anand. The Indian ace went for a topical variation as black and came up with an improvement in the opening to equalise easily as black.
ADVERTISEMENT
Fridman hung on to his own to get to a slightly worse endgame wherein the grind began to favour Anand once the position boiled down to minor piece endgame.
It was only on the 48th move that Anand faltered decisively. Instead of a Bishop retreat, the Indian went for a wrong manoeuvre after which Fridman gave no chances. A draw was signed ten moves later.
Naiditsch came up with his third decisive game out of four rounds and cruised to his second win.
Caruana opted for the sharp Arkhengelsk variation against black and appeared to be in some difficulties in the ensuing endgame. However, an erroneous plan by Adams led to an easy equality and the draw was a just result. The game lasted 50 moves.
The results: Fourth round: Daniel Fridman (Ger, 2) drew with V. Anand (Ind, 2); Michael Adams (Eng, 1.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 3); Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 2.5) bt Georg Meier (Ger, 1).