FRANKFURT, JUNE 23: Top contenders Grandmasters Viswanathan Anand of India and Gary Kasparov of Russia shot into a joint lead with a win and a draw each at the end of the second round of the Fujitsu-Siemens Giants chess tournament here Thursday night.Anand outplayed Alexander Morozevich of Russia while Kasparov defeated Hungarian Peter Leko in their second games. Earlier, they drew their game with each other. Both have 1.5 points from two games.Morozevich and another Russian Vladimir Kramnik trail the leaders by 0.5 points while Leko and Alexei Shirov of Spain have half points each after two rounds of play.Playing with black pieces against Kasparov, Anand opted for the Sicilian Taimanov defence and had no trouble in holding the Russian. The middlegame became equal after Kasparov exchanged the minor pieces and obtained a passed pawn on the queenside.Kasparov's happiness however was shortlived as Anand exchanged the queen at an appropriate time to enter a level rook and pawns endgame. The game was drawn after 32 moves.In the second game, Anand faced the Rossolimo attack of Morozevich and entered a double edged continuation from an equal middlegame. Morozevich went for an all-out attack against the king but Anand proved too quick on the queenside, winning a couple of pawns.In the dying stages, Morozevich sacrificed a piece for elusive counterplay but never got the desired compensation. Anand netted the full point after 34 moves. The Kramnik versus Leko encounter ended in a draw without much ado in round one. Kramnik employed the English opening with white pieces and faced the symmetrical set up. After exchanges of major forces the truce was signed in a drawn endgame.The only winner of round one was Morozevich who suprised Shirov in the Winawer variation of the French defence with black pieces. Both players castled on the queenside and Shirov appeared to have an edge in the middlegame.However, a tactical oversight by Shirov enabled Morozevich to launch an attack against the king with a temporary piece sacrifice. Morozevich's queen penetrated Shirov's camp to win decisive material.Kasparov, who was frustrated by Anand in his first game, made mincemeat of Leko in the second round. Facing the Rossolimo attack with black pieces, the hightest rated player in the world equalised in the early middlegame and then postered his knights in the blockade squares to effectively end Leko's kingside attack.After a flurry of exchanges Leko found himself with a bad bishop compared to Kasparov's dominating knight and lost a pawn. The rest was a matter of routine technique.Shirov opened his account in the tournament with a draw against Kramnik. The game took shape in a rare variation of the Sicilian defence and Kramnik got a level position from black pieces.Soon an opposite colour Bishop and rook endgame was reached and the position remained locked. After a lot of excitement in the mutual time scramble, the peace treaty was signed.
