World champion Viswanathan Anand might have recovered a lot of ground but he will still have to do a lot of hard work for a podium finish in the Corus international chess tournament here.

The Indian ace, who scored two successive victories to garner 4.5 points out of eight games so far, is currently on joint fourth spot in his favourite hunting ground where he has won five titles so far. In the ninth round after the second rest day, Anand meets Boris Gelfand of Israel.

The Category-20 field has seen the rise of Norwegian sensation Magnus Carlsen like never before but the teenager faces an uphill task in the last five rounds and meets Hungarian Peter Leko, Loek van Wely of Holland, Anand, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

A half-point cushion in a very strong field looks good with five rounds to come but it might not be enough for Carlsen given the opponents he still has to meet.

Carlsen is on 5.5 points, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Levon Aronian of Armenia, who now share the second spot.