Five-Time winner Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Spaniard Alexei Shirov while top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria lost to Russian Peter Svidler to liven things up in the ‘A’ group of the Corus International Chess tournament here. Having put in his best in the last two rounds, Anand could not do much against Shirov as the latter was well prepared to take on the Indian after regaining his form in the past few rounds.Anand could not get a good position out of the opening and in effect, it was a tame draw forcing the Indian again on the back foot in the first big tournament of the year.The draw, in fact, resulted in Anand slipping to joint fourth place on four points and now he needs victories in the last two rounds for a chance at shared top slot.Despite the loss, Topalov maintained his sole lead on 7.5 points where he is now followed by Svidler and Azerbaijani sensation Teinour Radjabov on 7 points apiece. Anand is next in line on 6.5 along with Kramnik, in dire need of two wins to keep his hopes alive. In the ‘C’ group being held simultaneously, Parimarjan Negi settled for a draw with Dutch GM Zhaoqin Peng to take his tally to 6 points with two games to come.International Master Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia staked his claim for the championship in this section with a fine victory over Swede GM Stellan Brynell that took his tally to an astounding 9.5 points out of a possible 11. Anand could not do much against a well-prepared Shirov in the Petroff defense game. The two had played some games in the past in this opening and a fresh discussion in one of the topical variations was on board wherein Shirov simply displayed his regained touch after a disastrous start. Anand tried to impose his game for quite some time but the position remained within the boundaries of a draw right through. Negi suffered for quite some time in an inferior position against Peng but remained in drawing distance in the longest game of the ‘C’ group in this round.
