World champion Viswanathan Anand played out his third draw with black pieces after facing Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov in the fourth round of the Tal memorial chess tournament at Hotel National in Moscow on Sunday.
Anand’s 32-move draw took his tally to 2.5 points on a day when only Vladimir Kramnik won to emerge as the leader at three points.
Anand once again chose the Grunfeld Defence and had no trouble in coming out with a draw. A series of exchanges led to an ending where the players were left with opposite coloured bishops and pawns.
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After a day of rest, when the action shifts to Gum Mall for the remaining five rounds, Anand will play with white pieces against Hungary’s Peter Leko in the next round.
Kramnik, who started the day by sharing the lead with Anand and Armenia’s Levon Aronian, cruised to his second successive win that resulted in consecutive losses for his Russian compatriot Peter Svidler. Kramnik, like Anand on Friday, got around Svidler’s Grunfeld Defence and proved superior in 37 moves.
Top seed Magnus Carlsen, suffering from throat infection, was involved in a draw for the fourth successive round after facing Aronian.
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The results:
Fourth round: Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 2) drew with Viswanathan Anand (2.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3) bt Peter Svidler (Rus, 1); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 2.5); Peter Leko (Hun, 1.5) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 2); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 1.5) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 2).