Anand draws, title hunt as good as over

Wijk Aan Zee, Jan 27 (UNI) Viswanathan Anand's chances of retaining the Corus Chess title appear slim after the Indian Super Grandmaster was held by Alexei Shirov of Spain in the 11th round of the tournament here.

With just two rounds remaining in the tournament, Anand aggregates 6.5, a full point less than chart topper Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, who shockingly lost from a winning position against Russian Peter Svidler.

Anand failed to cash in on the advantage of playing with white pieces and both the players settled for a draw after 30 moves.

The Indian takes on reigning Dutch Champion Sergey Tiviakov in the penultimate round today. Tiviakov split points with Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in his round 11 game.

Anand had a chance to win the match in the endgame with his extra pawn but the Indian failed to seize the initiative against his bottom-placed rival and agreed for a draw.

Anand, who is bidding for a sixth Corus title, is sixth on the table.

Meanwhile, in other important Group A matches, Levon Aronian beat Sergey Karjakin to join Svidler and Teimour Radjabov at second place.

In group C, Parimarjan Negi was held by local Zhaoqin Peng. The Indian is fifth on the table with six points from 11 games.

UNI