Anand ends first leg with a win

World champion Viswanathan Anand beat Chinese champion Ding Liren and jumped to sixth spot after the end of the fifth round of the Alekhine memorial chess tournament. Ending the first leg of the tournament on a high,Anand proved too good for Liren,who had earlier beaten world number three Levon Aronian of Armenia in the tournament. It was simply an easy victory that came in quick time.

Maxime Vachier-Lagraev made most of his opportunities against Peter Svidler of Russia to go in to sole on 3.5 points out of a possible five. Laurent Fressinet of France caused a big upset defeating Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to move to joint second spot.

In other games,Boris Gelfand of Israel drew with Aronian while English Michael Adams could not convert a slightly better endgame against Nikita Vituigov of Russia and achieved the same result. The battle will now move to St. Petersburg in Russia where the last four games will be played at the Russian museum.

Results round 5: V Anand Ind,2.5 beat D Liren Chn,2: L Fressinet FRA,3 beat V Kramnik RUS,2; P Svidler RUS,1 lost to M Vachier-Lagraev FRA,3.5; B Gelfand IR,3 drew with L Aronian ARM,3; M Adams ENG,3 drew with N Vituigov RUS,2