Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the sixth round of the Morelia-Linares Super Grandmasters chess tournament in Morelia, Mexico.
The lead positions remained unchanged at the fag end of the Morelia leg of the super tournament as the day failed to produce a single decisive game out of a possible four.
In the other games, Magnus Carlsen agreed to a quick draw with Peter Leko of Hungary, Levon Aronian signed peace with top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and the Russian duel between Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler had the same fate.
With only one round remaining in the Morelia leg, the event shifts to Linares in Spain thereafter Carlsen remains in sole lead on four points while Anand and Aronian remain on his heels half a point behind.
Leko, Ivanchuk and Svidler are also in close pursuit on three points while Topalov and Morozevich share the last spot on two points apiece.
Eight rounds remain in the eight-player double round robin event.
Anand's game was the longest of the day lasting 32 moves and Ivanchuk used too much time on his clock yet again.
Playing the white side of a Sicilian Najdorf, Anand went for a relatively new idea in the opening but could not gain advantage as Ivanchuk came up with precise manoeuvres.
In the middle game, Ivanchuk sank into his usual deep thinking and Anand's massive lead on the clock appeared to be the best hope for excitement on this otherwise dull day. But as it turned out, Anand blitzed in Ivanchuk's time trouble and at one point it looked as though the Ukrainian could have been better with a pawn capture. However, there was quick liquidation leading the game to level territories where the peace agreement was a just result.
Carlsen and Leko like to fight it on the tennis court as well and that is normally fiercer than the game they played in the sixth round.
For the record, Carlsen played out against Leko's Slav defense and the Anti-Meran variation only led to a dynamically balanced middle game when the players just decided to repeat to draw in just 20 moves.
This was however, not the shortest game of the day as Morozevich-Svidler pipped it by four moves. The English opening by Morozevich met with an equalising response from Svidler and the game was drawn in just 16 moves.
Levon Aronian played a little longer against an off-form Topalov but the latter played solidly to keep the Armenian at bay. The Queen's Gambit accepted by Topalov as black led to a few quick exchanges and soon an endgame was on board when the players decided it was not worth continuing after 22 moves.
Results - round 6: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 4.5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 3); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2); Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 3,5) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 3); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 2) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 3)
The moves: (V Anand v/s Vassily Ivanchuk)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Qd2 Nbd7 9. O-O-O Be7 10. h3 b5 11. g4 O-O 12. Kb1 Qc7 13. Bg2 Nb6 14. Bxb6 Qxb6 15. f4 Bc4 16. g5 Nh5 17. fxe5 dxe5 18. Nd5 Bxd5 19. exd5 Bd6 20. Na5 f5 21. gxf6 Rxf6 22. Rhf1 Re8 23. Rxf6 Nxf6 24. Nb3 e4 25. Nd4 Re5 26. c3 Qc5 27. Qe2 Nxd5 28. Bxe4 Nf6 29. Nb3 Qc7 30. Nd2 Qe7 31. Qd3 Bc5 32. Bg2 draw agreed.
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