Mumbai, January 16: Viswanathan Anand defeated Predrag Nikolic in the second round of the Corus Super Grandmasters chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee on Sunday, according to information available here. Facing time trouble, Nikolic resigned in the 40th move to help Anand draw level with Garry Kasparov on the points table.Kasparov, who won his first round on Saturday, settled for a draw with Holland's Jeroen Piket in his second successive round with black pieces. Anand had escaped with a draw against Jan Timman of Holland in the opening round. Playing black, Anand opted for a Nimzo Indian Defence and got a reprieve on the 28th move, before settling for a 42-move draw.Results (Round 2): V Anand 1.5 bt P Nikolic 0.5; J Piket 1.5 drew G Kasparov 1.5; A Morozevich 1 drew V Kramnik 1.5; M Adams 0.5 drew Judith Polgar 1; N Short 1 drew P Leko 1; (Round 1): S Lputian 0 lost to J Piket 1; J Timman 0.5 drew V Anand 0.5; P Nikolic 0.5 drew N Short 0.5; P Leko 0.5 drew A Morozevich 0.5; V Kramnik 1 bt M Adams 0; JPolgar 0.5 drew L Van Wely 0.5; V Korchnoi 0 lost to G Kasparov 1.Chinese build a wallUDAIPUR: As the seventh round of men's Asian Chess championship came to a close, Chinese players tightened their grip on the leaderboard with three of them GMs Zhang Zhong, Xu Jun and Peng Xiadmin among the four sharing the top spot with five points. Indians continued to struggle and slumped further on the ladder. The fourth leader is GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam.In the women's VIIIth Asian Championship, Chinies WGM Qin Kanying, top seed, and Vietnam's WGM Haong Thang Trang maintained the lead with six points. Tomorrow is a rest day.Results (VIIth round)Men: GM Dao Thien Hai (VIE, 2550) 5 drew GM Zhang Zhong (CHI, 2611) 5; GM Xu Jun (CHI, 2578) 5 drew GM Wang Zili (CHI, 2571) 4.5; GM Peng Xiadmin (CHI, 2624) 5 bt K Sasikiran (IND, 2514) 4; IM Kayumov Dimitry (UZB, 2475) 4 drew GM Dibyendu Barua (IND, 2555) 3.5; IM Wu Wenjin (CHI, 2522) 4 bt IM GB Prakash (IND, 2435) 3; FM Ghaem Meghami Eshan(IRAN, 2446) 3.5 drew SS Ganguly (IND, 2440) 3.5; FM P Harikrishna (IND, 2354) 4 bt IM RB Ramesh (IND, 2443) 3; S Kidambi (IND, 2433) 2.5 lost IM Reefat Bin Satter (BAN, 2379) 4; IM DV Prasad (IND, 2421) 3 drew IM Sudhakar Babu (IND, 2336) 3; FM Timothy Reilly (Australia, 2192) 2 lost to GM Pravin Thipsay (IND, 2475) 3.5; IM Abhijit Kunte (IND, 2487) 3.5 bt Razaei Saravi Reza (IRAN, 2220) 1.5.Women: WGM Qin Kanying (CHI, 2475) 6 bt WGM Mamedova Rena (UZB, 2323) 4.5; WGM Hoang Thanh Trang (CHI, 2448) 6 bt WIM Swati Ghate (IND, 2297) 3.5; WIM Sargeeva Tatiana (KAZ, 2250) 3.5 lost to WIM Bhagyasree Thipsay (IND, 2247) 4.5; WGM Wang Pin (CHI, 2469) 4 bt WFM Saheli Dhar Barua (IND, 2185) 3; WFM Xu Yuanyuan (CHI, 2370) 4 bt WIM Rani Hamid (IND, 2136) 3; WFM Safira Shanaz (IND, 2136) 3 bye, WIM Sargeeva Maria (KAZ, 2207) 4 drew with WIM S Vijayalkshmi (IND, 2383) 4.5.
