Erratic Anand salvages draw

After a hard-earned victory over Wang Yue of China in the previous round, Anand survived by the skin of his teeth and managed a draw against Carlsen to move to four points out of a possible seven.

With just three rounds to come in the six-player double round-robin tournament, Carlsen is sitting pretty with a full-point lead with five points to his credit from seven games.

Former world champion Topalov recorded his first victory at the expense of Bacrot while the other game of the seventh round, between Gashimov and Wang, ended in a draw. Wang stands last with two points from four draws in the 250,000 Euro prize money tournament.

Anand opted for the Berlin defense that had given him a victory against Carlsen in the previous event in Bilbao.  The Indian did not find much trouble in reaching a balanced middlegame. The Indian ace started to feel the heat after a pair of rooks got traded and Carlsen nonchalantly started to build an attack on the kingside with a pawn roll. Soon, Anand was pushed to the wall and his pieces were saddled with the task of a long and tiring defense which is always difficult to manage. Anand put up stiff resistance but Carlsen was persistent enough to get a study-like winning position which he could not convert on move 63.

Anand quickly regained his composure and Carlsen, realising that he has missed the opportunity, agreed for a draw vide perpetual checks after 68 moves.
Results (round seven): Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5) drew V Anand (Ind, 4); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 3) bt Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 4); Vugar Gashimov (Aze, 3) drew Wang Yue (Chn, 2).