JOIN USThe triumph over Grischuk came in the rapid game and this was the third mini-match that Anand won following his victory over Boris Gelfand of Israel in the third round. Anand had earlier beaten Veselin Topalov in the opener and had then played out two draws with Vladimir Kramnik in the second round.
Levon Aronian of Armenia and Magnus Carlsen of Norway, however, remained at the helm following fine performances.
While Carlsen accounted for young Anish Giri of Holland 1.5-0.5, Aronian defeated Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine by a similar margin to remain on the leaderboard in the combined standings. With seven rounds or 14 games still remaining, both Aronian and Carlsen have six points apiece and Anand is half a point behind.
In the blindfold standings, Aronian and Grischuk share the lead on three points each while Anand is tied third along with Carlsen and Azerbaijani Vugar Gashimov.
Carlsen leads solely in the rapid section with 3.5 points from four games and is closely pursued by Anand, Aronian and Topalov half a point adrift.