Fighting Anand holds Adams

World champion Visw­anathan Anand played out a fighting draw with Michael Adams of England in the first round of the Grenke Chess Classic that got underway here.

After a last round shocking loss against Wang Hao of China at the just-concluded Tata Steel Chess tournament, Anand seemed to be in fine fettle and his attempts at complications were met with some precise play by the Englishman.

Fabiano Caruana of Italy emerged as the early leader in the six-player double round-robin tournament with a crushing victory against Georg Meier of Germany. The other all-German affair between Arkadij Naiditsch and Daniel Fridman was drawn without much ado.

Caruana on one point and is followed by Anand, Adams, Fridman and Naiditsch with half a point apiece while Meier is at the bottom following his first round defeat.