The listless sequence of draws for World champion Viswanathan Anand continued when he was held by young Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, in just 27 moves, in the third round of the Tal memorial chess tournament in Moscow on Friday.
Playing from white side of Gruenfeld Russian, Anand tried to create some chances from the queenside, while the castled black king was safely fortified on the other flank. Nepomniachtchi could not pose much threat to Anand's exposed castled king since only his queen had some active play.
A third successive draw left Anand with 1.5 points, half a point less than Nepomniachtchi's tally.
In the second round, World No.1 Magnus Carlsen emerged as the day's only winner after facing Boris Gelfand. Carlsen joined Nepomniachtchi and Vassily Ivanchuk in the lead at 1.5 points.
The results : Second round : Peter Svidler (Rus, 0.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (1); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5) bt Boris Gelfand (Isr, 0.5); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 1.5) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 1.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 1) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 0.5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 1) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 1).