Anand held by Polgar

World Rapid champion Viswanathan Anand settled for an easy draw with black yet again while Hungarian Peter Leko strengthened his sole lead with a fluent victory over Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba in the 11th round of the Corus chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands.

While Anand maintained his joint-second spot after the draw with Polgar on 6.5 points, Leko stretched his lead to a full point after the victory and took his tally to a near assailable 7.5 out of a possible 11.

Bulgarian Veslin Topalov was still engrossed in his battle against Dutchman Ivan Sokolov and only after the result of this match is out, the final standings will be known with just two rounds remaining in this category-19 event.

Showing what correct chess is, Anand had it easy against Polgar, the best ever woman player in history.

Playing black, the Indian ace shied away from complicated variations and employed the tested Petroff defence to get the balanced middle game he was looking for.

Polgar had some ideas in the ensuing middle game but Anand was quite up to the task in neutralising white's initiative with timely exchanges resulting in a drawn ending.

The game lasted 38 moves.

Leko was at his very best in tackling Bruzon, who could not match the Hungarian even as he tried hard.

Playing the Tchigorin variation in the Ruy Lopez, Bruzon was outdone in an extensively analysed variation of the system.

It was a plain Leko show as Bruzon watched the landslide going against him. The leader won in just 26 moves.

Michael Adams drew with local star Loek Van Wely but not without an intense struggle.

Wely was in his storming self in this encounter and went all out for a victory. However Adams was always in contention in the game as he matches Wely move-for-move.

After routine exchanges the peace was signed in a level endgame.

Results round 11: Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) playing Alexander Grischuk (Rus); Peter Leko (Hun, 7) beat Lazaro Bruzon (Cub, 5.5); Judit Polgar (Hun, 5.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 6.5); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 5) drew with Nigel Short (Eng, 5); Ivan Sokolov (Ned, 2.5) playing Veselin Topalov (Bul, 6); Peter Svidler (Rus, 5) drew with Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 4); Loek Van Wely (Ned, 5) drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 6.5).