Former World champion Viswanathan Anand drew a hard-fought game with Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Armenia in the fourth match of the Armenia versus Rest of the world contest now in progress at the Hyatt Ararat in Moscow.
The World team maintained its four-point lead over the Armenians with a 3-3 draw in the fourth clash and now looks set for a triumph as there are just two rounds or 12 games remaining in this six-player event being played under the Scheveningen system wherein each member of one team plays one game each with the rival team members.
The World team took its overall tally to a whopping 14 points out of a possible 24 while the Armenians are now saddled on 10. Problems for the Armenian team continued from their lower rated players as Smbat Lputian lost his third game in the event, going down to Frenchman Etienne Bacrot, once the youngest Grandmaster of the world.
In fact only a late onslaught by former World championship finalist Vladimir Akopian could assure the Armenians of their first graceful drawn result.
The World team had beaten Armenia 3.5-2.5 in the first, 4-2 in the second and again 3.5-2.5 in the third match of the event in last three days.
Anand played a patient game against Gelfand, who is still looking for an elusive victory here. It was a Petroff defence, a rare choice by the Israeli who is known as the most famous pupil of late Armenian World champion Tigran Petrosian for whose 75th birth anniversary celebrations the tournament is being played.
Anand tackled the opening quite well despite being surprised and came out with a miniscule advantage but Gelfand's timely thrust in the middle game ensured him enough respite. The endgame arose after Anand sacrificed a pawn for initiative but there was nothing to hope for as Gelfand quickly neutralised. The draw was agreed to after 30 moves.
Bacrot was in his element while taking care of Lputian, who played the white side of a Slav defence game. The middle game was approximately equal but an oversight in the endgame cost Lputian dearly as he lost a couple of pawns.
However, with his king march right to the 7th rank, Luptian kept himself in the game and it took Bacrot 54 moves to eventually score the victory.
Akopian scored the equaliser for Armenia in the last game to end in the day when he defeated Loek Van Wely.
Surprising, both the decisive game of the day were won by players playing black.
Van Wely is one player in the World team who is having a rough time but in case of Armenians the figure is more.
Moreover for the World team Anand and Peter Svidler have played excellently with three points each out of their four games while for their rivals, even thee world's top rated Garry Kasparov
has mustered just 2.5 so far.
The clash of the titans is still to come as Anand is yet to play Peter Leko and Kasparov, who is also to play against Svidler in his other remaining encounter.
Results match 4: Armenia (10) Rest of the World (14)
Viswanathan Anand (ROW) drew with Boris Gelfand (ARM); Garry Kasparov (ARM) drew with Michael Adams (ROW); Peter Leko (ARM) drew with Peter Svidler (ROW); Smbat Luptian (ARM) lost to Etienne Bacrot (ROW); Loek Van Wely (ROW) lost to Vladimir Akopian (ARM); Francisco Vallejo Pons (ROW) drew with Rafael Vaganian (ARM).
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