Moscow: World Champion Viswanathan Anand played out a quick draw with world cup champion Peter Svidler of Russia in the second round of the Tal memorial chess tournament.
It turned out to be another uneventful draw for Anand after he had drawn with Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the first game of the tournament played on Wednesday.
Anand will now have to tackle Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in his third round game.
World Number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway was the sole winner in the second round after he got the better of Boris Gelfand of Israel.
Carlsen had opted out of the last world championship cycle but with this win against the challenger, the Norwegian has sent out warning signals to Anand.
Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk had got off to a flier and was again seen pressing for a win against the other first round winner Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia. Nepomniachtchi was under pressure with a pawn less endgame but eventually salvaged a draw.
Anand has been one of those players in the world against whom Svidler has always struggled. It came as no surprise when the Russian decided to take a safer route against the world champion.
Initially showing positive approach, Svidler adopted the Advance variation in the Caro Kann defense and early in the middle game went for the repetition of moves to force a draw.
The game lasted a mere 23 moves, giving Anand an easy draw as black.
Carlsen made sure to be amongst the leaders following his fine triumph over Gelfand. The Norwegian went for an exchange sacrifice in the middle game to impress his presence on the queen side and was well rewarded.
Gelfand could not find anything to keep him going amidst wild complexities and eventually fell prey to some fine tactics that Carlsen came up with.
In other games of the day, Armenian Levon Aronian pressed for some advantage but did not succeed against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.
Sergey Karjakin hoped for an advantage against Hikaru Nakamura of United States but the latter maintained the parity right till the end of this Najdorf Sicilian game, as the match ended in a draw.
Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi and Ivanchuk share the lead on 1.5 points after two games in this nine round tournament.
Anand shares the fourth spot currently.
Results round 2: Peter Svidler (Rus, 0.5) drew with V Anand (Ind, 1); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5) beat Boris Gelfand (Isr, 0.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 1.5) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 1.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 1) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 0.5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 1) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 1).
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