Anand held for third consecutive time in Chess Grand slam

Bilbao, Spain, Sep 5 (UNI) World Champion Viswanathan Anand played his third succssesive draw, signing peace with Armenia's Levon Aronian in the third round of Bilbao Grand Slam final here.

Anand slipped to the joint third spot on 3 points in the soccer-like scoring system that gives 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.

Anand is now 2 points away from new leader Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and 1 point behind Norweigian prodigy Magnus Carlsen.

In the other two games of the 6-player double round robin event, Topaloov defeated Carlsen while Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, who held Anand in the second round, played out a draw with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.

However, with seven rounds still to come in the 400000 Euro prize money tournament, Topalov with one win and draws has 5 points while Carlsen with a win, one loss and one draw has four.

Anand is on joint third spot with Ivanchuk and Radjabov on 3 points while Aronian is at the bottom of the standings with just 2 points earned through two draws thus far.

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