Top seeded Viswanathan Anand got a lukewarm start to his campaign at the World Championships as the Indian was held to an easy draw by Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel in the opening round here.
Anand could do little with white pieces against Gelfand’s solid defence and it did not take long for the Indian ace to realise that breaking the ice will be difficult. It was a dull first day as all the four games ended in a draws in less than 30 moves, keeping all the eight players in this double round-robin tied at the top spot on a half point each.
In the other games, reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia signed peace with compatriot Peter Svidler, Armenian Levon Aronian reached a quick deadlock against Alexander Morozevich of Russia while Alexander Grishchuk of Russia achieved the same result against Hungarian Peter Leko. Anand will meet Aronian in the next round and play with black pieces. In the last classical encounter, Aronian had beaten Anand with the favourable colour and the Indian will be out there to set the scores right.
Anand faced the Petroff defense that is slowly becoming one of the main variations for Gelfand as black and given the solidity of the opening it was always going to be a tough nut to crack.
Anand went for a topical variation but Gelfand was well armed to tackle the complications. The pieces got exchanged as if in a heap and the peace was signed in just 22 moves, making it the shortest game of the day.
Results, round I: Viswanathan Anand (Ind) drew Boris Gelfand (Isr); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) drew  Peter Svidler (Rus); Alexander Grishchuk (Rus) drew Peter Leko (Hun); Alexander Morozevich (Rus) drew Levon Aronian (Arm).
Pairing (round 2): Levon Aronian vs Viswanathan Anand; Peter Svidler vs Peter Leko; Boris Gelfand vs Alexander Grischuk; Vladimir Kramnik vs Alexander Morozevich.