Anand holds Kramnik

World champion Viswnathan Anand played out his second draw in the Zurich Chess Challenge, easily holding world number two Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to an easy draw in the second round on Monday.

After playing out a draw with Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the opener also as black, Anand faced even less difficulties against Kramnik whose attempt to get an advantage were thwarted.

The other game of the four-players double round-robin tournament between Boris Gelfand of Israel and Caruana also ended in a draw but only after the young Italian gave a real scare to the last world championship challenger.

With all four games in the tournament ending in draws so far, the hunt for the leader continues with four rounds still to come in the super tournament. All the four players are tied on one point each.

Results (round II): Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 1) drew V Anand (Ind, 1); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1) drew Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 1).

The moves: V Kramnik – V Anand 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c5 4. O-O Nc6 5. d4 e6 6. c4 dxc4 7. dxc5 Qxd1   8. Rxd1 Bxc5 9. Nbd2 c3 10. bxc3 O-O 11. Nb3 Be7 12. c4 Bd7 13. Bb2 Rfd8 14.  Nfd4 Rac8 15. c5 Nxd4 16. Bxd4 Bc6   17. Rab1 Bxg2 18. Kxg2 h6 19. e3 Nd7 20. Na5 Nxc5 21. Nxb7 Nxb7 22. Rxb7 Bf6   23. Rdb1 Bxd4 24. exd4 a5 25. Ra7 Rd5 26. Rbb7 Rf5 27. Rc7 Rd8 28. Rc5 Rxd4   29. Rxf5 exf5 30. Rxa5 f4 31. a4 g5 32. Ra8+ Kg7 33. a5 fxg3 34. hxg3 Ra4 35. a6 h5 36. Kf3  Ra3+ 37. Kg2 h4 38. gxh4 gxh4 39. a7 Kf6 40. Rh8 h3+ 41. Rxh3 game drawn.