Anand draws with Short

World rapid champion Viswanathan Anand settled for a none-too-eventful draw with Commonwealth champion Nigel Short of England in the third round of the Corus chess tournament.

Taking the proverbial 8216;breather8217; after a disastrous loss against Grandmaster Peter Leko of Hungary in the previous round, Anand did not attempt much with his black pieces against Short and signed the peace treaty in just 23 moves.

Overnight leader Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria also played it safe and settled for a draw with Loek van Wely of Netherlands in just 19 moves of a Sicilian Rossolimo. With the draw Topalov edged up to 2.5 points where he was likely to be joined by Peter Leko who did not slow up after beating Anand in the previous round. Leko enjoyed a completely winning position against Russian Peter Svidler.