Anand maintains joint lead

Viswanthan Anand settled for another easy draw with local hope Loek Van Wely and maintained joint lead after the end of the third round in the Corus Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands, on Tuesday.

Also Read I really want to beat Kasparov: Anand

Anand, Grandmaster Peter Leko of Hungary and Russian champion Peter Svidler share the lead with an identical score of two points from three games and are likely to be joined by Grandmaster Alexei Shirov of Spain, who enjoyed a favourable position against Chinese Grandmaster GM Zhang Zhong at the time of going to press.

Yet again the day featured only one decisive game so far, with Svidler striking it big against 2002 champion Evgeny Bareev, his compatriot. Even as another day of high-caliber chess was on display the decisive results remained elusive.

Anand had no trouble again with black. In the Capablanca variation of the Nimzo Indian, van Wely went for an extensively analysed endgame that apparently gives little trouble to the second player. Anand, an exponent of Nimzo, got the equality with effortless manoeuvres and settled for the truce in just 21 moves.

Quite significantly, Svidler played the shortest game of the day. And still it yielded him the maximum. Evgeny Bareev was at his wits end in tackling his National champ as he was crushed in no time.

Svidler's play was exemplary. Up against a Rubenstein as white, he had a new plan on hand where Bareev simply failed to produce the best defence. Openeing up the centre at the right time, Svidler won in just 17 moves.

Results round 3: Peter Leko (2, Hun) drew Veselin Topalov (1.5, Bul); Peter Svidler (2, Rus) beat Evgeny Bareev (1, Rus); Viktor Bologan (1.5, Mda) drew Vladimir Kramnik (1.5, Rus); Ivan Sokolov (1.5, Ned) drew Michael Adams (1.5, Eng); Alexei Shirov (1, Esp) playing) Zhang Zhong (1, Chn); Vladimir Akopian (1.5, Arm) drew Jan Timman (1, Ned); Loek Van Wely (1, Ned) drew Viswanathan Anand (2).