Viswanathan Anand was held to a third straight draw by Ruslan Ponomariov in the third round of the Mtel Masters Chess tournament at the Grand Hotel Sofia.
Playing a Petroff defence, the two split the point by repetition of moves after 33 moves.
Anand, now has 1.5 points from three games, and is lying in a tie for second place.
Vladimir Kramnik, whose third round game was still in progress, leads with 1.5 points, and he has one game at hand.
The other two games were still in progress. Kramnik with black was playing Michael Adams in a Petroff, identical to the one Anand and Pono played, and Judit Polgar was playing against Veselin Topalov after starting out in the Spanish, which went the way of the Berlin defence.
"The draw was a fair result," said Anand. On the fact that so many games were ending in draws, Anand said, "Modern classical chess is such. The openings are well prepared and generally it is close." Yet, on the state of the tournament, he added, "It is finely balanced."
Anand also took more time than usual and at one time trailed by almost 25 minutes on the clock. "I invested some time after he played Bd6 (11th move for black) and then again before Ra3 (his 29th move) to see if anything else was possible in which case there may have been a line possible for white (Anand)."
Anand started out the day with a very big head-to-head advantage, including classical wins in 2005 Corus, 2003 Linares and 2003 Wijk.
Anand has never lost to Pono with white and has won six times against one loss -- in the Chess Classic of Mainz in 2002.
In at least three of his six career losses to Anand, the Ukrainian had played the Sicilian. But today the game went into the Petroff.
When asked whether Pono may have avoided the Sicilian, Anand said, "That's hard to say. Players usually decide what they will play close maybe on the morning. Maybe depending on the mood."
In the initial stages it looked as Anand may continue his hold over Pono. But the young man held his own. Anand admitted that he did not want to get into some lines, which Ponomariov tried to bring in.
Anand came out of the opening with a slight advantage. But with Ponomariov forcing an exchange of queens on 24th move looked safe for black.
Then Anand sacrificed a pawn on the 27th, but it also meant that it allowed Pono an important square.
In the end Anand decided that a draw was a more logical way. With draw offers not allowed, and Pono also being happy with a split point, the two repeated moves and a draw was arrived at.
Pairings for Round 4: Adams v Ponomariov; Polgar v Anand; Topalov v Kramnik
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