Chennai: For the first time since he qualified as challenger to the world cron, Boris Gelfand of Israel entered a field featuring champion Viswanathan Anand.
The sixth Tal memorial started on a bright note in Moscow but interestingly the best games were not played by any of the four 2800-players. Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian of Armenia drew their first-round games while former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia as the super stars took time to settle down.
In the second game on Thursday, Anand, with black, split the point with Peter Svidler of Russia in just 23 moves after the world champion chose a flexible Caro-Kann line that promised a long fight. However, Svidler could not get anything from the opening as Anand always played the best moves. The draw came when Svidler invited his opponent to trade the queens.
The Times Of India