Anand to take on Leko in semis

Viswanathan Anand will meet Peter Leko in the semi-final of the Sparkassen chess tournament in Dortmund, Germany.

The Indian ace had a quick and short draw with Peter Svidler in just 19 moves of  closed Ruy Lopez and took his tally to four out of a maximum possible six.

The draw with Anand helped Svidler clinch his semi-final berth, where he will take on Vladimir Kramnik.

In Group B, once again all games were drawn, leaving all players tied at three points out of six. In the play-off rapid chess (10 min + 5 sec for every move) that followed, Kramnik and Leko were successful and moved into the semi-finals. In the six rapid games, Kramnik secured four points, while Leko got 3.5.

Defending champion Viorel Bologan (2.5) and Sergey Karjakin (2) were relegated to play-off for fifth to eighth places, where the two players from Group A are Arkadij Naiditsch and Sergey Rublevsky.

Svidler needed only a draw to advance to the semi-final, while Anand was assured of his place. In such a situation a draw was expected and so it happened in 19 moves from a closed Ruy Lopez. Clearly both players preferred to take it easy and rest for their semi-finals.

Meanwhile young Naiditsch enhanced his reputation by scoring a good win over more experienced Sergey Rublevsky in a 39-move Scotch Game, where the former had black pieces. It was Naiditsch's first win in the tournament.

In Group B, nobody wanted to take risks in normal classical game and chose to take it to play-offs.

Leko and Kramnik drew in just 20 moves from a Ruy Lopez Berlin, while Bologan and Karjakin took 25 moves to split the point from a Semi-Slav Defence.

In the play-off, Kramnik showed his superiority and emerged on top and Leko ensured there was no upset with a second place.

Semi-final line-up: Anand  v Leko; Kramnik v Svidler

Playoffs for 5th-8th: Naiditsch v Karjakin; Bologan v Rublevsky

Group A (Results after Round 6) Svidler drew with Anand; Rublevsky lost to Naiditsch;

Standings: 1. Anand 4.0; 2. Svidler 3.5; 3. Naiditsch 2.5; 4. Rublevsky 2.0;

Group B (Results after Round 6): Leko drew with Kramnik; Bologan drew with Karjakin.

Standings: 1. Kramnik, Leko, Karjakin and Bologan (all 3 each).

Play-off: 1. Kramnik 4 2. Leko 3.5 3. Bologan 2.5 4. Karjakin 2.