Vishwanathan Anand continued his steady progress at the Dortmund Super Grandmasters Chess tournament by drawing his second round match against Hungarian Grandmaster Peter Leko here.
It was his second draw in as many rounds in the elite event being contested by eight players at the Civic Theater.
World Champion Vladimir Kramnik shot into the lead by defeating Israel’s Boris Gelfand in a positional game. He shares the lead with Russian Grandmaster Evgeny Alekseev who shocked Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the second round.
The game between German Grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch and Norwegian prodigy GM Magnus Carlsen ended in a draw after a tense struggle.
Leko played the Marshall Attack against the Spanish opening and concentrated his forces against Anand’s king by sacrificing a pawn.
Anand was well prepared for this and managed to keep his king safe from threats. He reduced the force of the attack by trading pieces and taking the game into an endgame.  
Results (Round II): Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 1.5) bt Boris Gelfand (Isr, 0.5); Evgeny Alekseev (Rus, 1.5) bt Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 1.0); Vishwanathan Anand (Ind, 1.0) drew Peter Leko (Hun, 1.0) Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 0.5) drew Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.0).