Chennai: Ever since he soundly beat Vladimir Kramnik in the World championship match in 2008, Viswanathan Anand has had a cordial relationship over the board against the Russian.
The fifth-round game between the two in the Tal Memorial chess tournament on Sunday was destined to end in a draw as soon as it started going by the past records and also the way they steered the Grunfeld defence game too.
After 36 moves, the draw was agreed upon in an opposite-coloured bishop ending. This was Anand's fifth successive draw in the tournament. The Indian has now 2.5 points.
Earlier, all five games were drawn on Saturday when four of them looked like producing decisive results. The standings remained unchanged with Levon Aronian (Armenia), Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Karjakin (both Russia) and Magnus Carlsen (Norway) sharing the lead with 2.5 points each after four rounds.
The Times Of India