Anand holds Topalov, still second

Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): Viswanathan Anand drew against Veselin Topalov in the 12th Round of the Corus Chess Championship.

Anand, who is a four times Corus Champion, drew the game in less than 2 hours.

Topalov who had beaten Anand twice

earlier, was expecting another win but Anand's tactical maneuvering with black pieces gave him no room for an attack.

The game then followed the Ruy Lopez lines. After exchange of rooks, Topalov realising Anand's motive to keep the position equal, agreed for a draw.

The last round of the game will be crucial for both the players as the margin of difference between them is just half a point.

Anand will be playing against Boris Gelfand while Topalov will have black against the reigning Champion Peter Leko.

In GM Group B, Koneru Humpy played exceedingly good game to beat Grandmaster Daniel Stellwagen of Netherlands.

Playing with white, it took her just 47 moves to defeat Stellwagen in a King's Indian Defence game.

She is tied with Beliavsky and Cheparinov for the 8th place with all the three having scored six points each.

In yet another upset, Zoltan Almasi defeated GM Group B leader A Motylev to become sole leader with 8.5 points.

Magnus Carlsen who drew with Cheparinov is now tied with A Motylev for the 2nd place with 8 points.

In the only decisive game of the 12th round World Junior Champion, S Mamedyarov lost for second time in a row to Gata Kamsky of the US.

All other games ended in draw as no player wanted to take risk in this penultimate round.