Anand faces Svidler

Top of the table with a half point lead, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will enter the crucial phase of the Candidates chess tournament, taking on Peter Svidler after the second rest day here.

From a great beginning to some cautious play, Anand, with four points in his bag from six games, enjoys a half point lead over Levon Aronian of Armenia.

It’s a closely matched field as almost everyone except the lowest seed Dmitry Andreikin of Russia seems to be in the race for the title. The winner will get the chance to face Norway’s Magnus Carlsen.

The eight-player double round-robin tournament has seen a lot of excitement and there are no clear favourites as yet but surely Anand has an edge thanks to his half point cushion.