Linares: Viswanathan Anand played out his second draw in as many days splitting the point with tailender Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain in the ninth round of the Linares Super Grandmasters chess tournament here to remain in joint second place.

It turned out to be an uneventful day after some very hard fought games in the previous two rounds with draws being the order of the day.

That meant Vladimir Kramnik regained sole lead as the other overnight leader Peter Leko of Hungary had a bye in this round.

Kramnik took his tally to 5 points from his 8 games played so far and is followed by Leko, Anand and Garri Kasparov of Russia on 4.5 points apiece. Of the three, Leko has played a game less. In joint fifth spot were Azerbaijani Teimour Radjabov and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine on 3 points each while local hope Vallejo is at the bottom of the table on 2.5 points.

RESULTS (Round 9)

Vladimir Kramnik (5/8) drew Ruslan Ponomariov (3/8); Viswanathan Anand (4.5/8) drew Francisco Vallejo Pons (2.5/7); Teimour Radjabov (3/8) drew Garri Kasparov (4.5/8); Peter Leko (4.5/7) had a bye.