India’s Viswanathan Anand almost laid his hands on the World chess championship title after settling for a draw with Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk of Russia in the 13th and penultimate round here on Saturday.

Anand kept his one point lead over Boris Gelfand of Israel who played out a draw with Russian Vladimir Kramnik.
The Indian ace now has 8.5 points out of a possible 13 and is now just a draw away from regaining the title. In the final round, Anand will play as white against Peter Leko of Hungary who was the only winner on the penultimate day.

The chances of Anand slipping from here is very slim as first he must lose as white which is an unlikely event given his great form, and secondly Gelfand must win with black pieces against Alexander Morozevich which is also not going to be easy. The tie-breaker will come into effect should this highly unlikely scenario come up. The games in the 13th round were again fought hard but were not as bloody as in the previous round when there were three decisive games.

Playing with white pieces, Gelfand played it cool against Kramnik and drew after a short battle, while Aronian reached the same result when he failed to break the defences of winless Peter Svidler. Leko lifted himself to the fourth spot in the standings after beating Morozevich. Behind Anand is Gelfand on 7.5 points, while Kramnik is another half point adrift. Leko is next in line on 6.5 points, Aronian stands sole fifth on six, while the Russian trio of Grischuk, Svidler and Morozevich are now at the bottom of the tables on 5.5 points apiece.

It turned out to be a tough day in office for Anand who had to survive a few anxious moments against Grischuk. It was for the first time in the event that Semi Slav led to a difficult position for Anand in the endgame and he was fighting to salvage a half point for the major part.

Grischuk was well on top after winning a pawn with white pieces but Anand hung in there with an awesome defence.

Results (round 13): Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 5.5) drew with V Anand (Ind, 8.5); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 7.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 7); Peter Leko (Hun, 6.5) bt Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 5.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 5.5) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 5.5).