Anand

Mexico City: Viswanathan Anand regained sole lead in the World Chess Championship after outplaying Alexander Grischuk in the seventh round on Thursday.

Boris Gelfand, who shared the lead with the Indian GM after six rounds, drew with defending champion Vladimir Kramnik and slipped to second.

In other seventh-round games, Peter Leko played solidly with black to draw against Alexander Morozevich, while Svidler shared the point with Levon Aronian.

Anand again made winning with white in the Spanish Opening look very easy. On Thursday, the Indian decided to go for the anti-Marshall variation and gained the advantage in space. Grischuk had difficulty in finding good squares for his pieces.

The exchange of queens brought Grischuk some relief, even as Anand kept up the pressure by advancing his kingside pawns.

For some time it looked as though Grishcuk would manage a draw, but Anand broke through the kingside.

Grischuk gave up after 50 moves when he could not stop Anand’s passed queen pawn from promoting to a queen.

The Kramnik versus Gelfand match was the day’s most exciting duel. Gelfand failed to make the most of his chances and allowed Kramnik to escape with a draw.

Playing the popular semi-Slav, Gelfand started an early attack on the kingside and seized the initiative in the middlegame. However, he failed to find the best continuation in a very complicated position and frittered away the advantage. In the end, Kramnik had an extra pawn in a rook and opposite coloured bishop ending, but it was insufficient to play for a win. The players agreed to a draw after 40 moves.

A long drawn encounter between Morozevich and Leko ended after 60 moves.

Svidler played the exchange variation of the Spanish opening for the first time in his career. Aronian was clearly unprepared and Svidler obtained the superior position from the opening.

Svidler made a wrong move with his king in the endgame, allowing Aronian to neutralise his advantage. The players split the point after 20 moves in a level position.