Viswanathan Anand

Mexico City: World No.1 Viswanathan Anand took another step towards regaining the world title after settling for an easy draw with Russian Peter Svidler in the 12th round of the world championship.

As many as three out of the four games played on Friday ended decisively.

Anand went for the fashionable Marshall and Svidler declined the gambit in Ruy Lopez. There was not much to do for either once a few pieces and pawns changed hands in the middle game. Draw was agreed to in just 22 moves.

Anand was content with half a point as it strengthened his title chances. In the remaining two games, the Indian ace has white pieces against Peter Leko of Hungary and black against Russian Alexander Grischuk. It is hard to see anyone stopping Anand even though the gap was bridged a little by Israel’s Boris Gelfand.

While Gelfand won against Levon Aronian of Armenia, it was the late onslaught by Russian Vladimir Kramnik that caught the eye. With clinical precision, he defeated Leko in a finely crafted game.

In the other game of the day, Alexander Morozevich pushed Grischuk to joint last place.

Anand, with eight points, has a full point lead over Gelfand who has to meet Kramnik and Morozevich. Kramnik took third position on his own on 6.5 points while Leko, Morozevich and Aronian now share the fifth spot with 5.5 points. Peter Svidler is next in line on five points alongside Grischuk.

Gelfand won with black to maintain his theoretical chances of catching Anand. The Israeli started with the Slav Defence and it was the Moscow variation that helped him win this important clash.

Aronian struggled in the middle game after going for some wild complexities and had to pay a heavy price once Gelfand got his queen to do the damage on the king side. It was all over on move 40.

Kramnik won a move earlier and was clearly the superior player in the game against Leko.

Playing the Catalan Opening with white, the Russian took due risk and sacrificed an exchange in the middle game to ensure problems for Leko who did not put up the best defence. Winning back the rook in the later stages, Kramnik tightened the noose with skilful display of attacking chess.

Morozevich employed the Sicilian Defence with reversed colours to confuse Grischuk and his idea clicked as Grischuk became over-ambitious after getting a level position.

Morozevich picked up a couple of queenside pawns and never looked back in this 42-mover. (PTI)