Adams holds Anand

World champion Vishwanathan Anand played a second successive draw at the Sparkassen Dortmund Super Grandmaster Chess tournament at the magnificient Operahaus on Friday evening.

The Indian FIDE champion was held to a quick draw in just 50 minutes by Englishman Michael Adams.

After his second straight draw, Anand has one point, while Adams has half. The game lasted just 21 moves.

The game followed a similar line till the 17th move as the Peter Leko-Adams game in the first round, which Adams lost as he played weakly.

On the frist day, Adams was unable to hold his own in a bishop and two pawns versus knight and three pawns. It ended in a loss for him, but on Friday, he was better prepared.

“I realised Mickey (Adams) had improved greatly on what he played yesterday, there really was nothing for me to continue, so a draw was logical,” said Anand, the NIIT Brand Ambassador.

"He was playing solid and there was no point in pushing it.”

The game was a Petroff defence and Adams said he regained his confidence after drawing with the Indian.

"It was a relief to get my confidence back after a disappointment against Peter (Leko)," said Adams.

Adams last beat the Indian in 1998 at this same tournament, but since then Anand has a huge plus against him.

The Indian, who has received a lot of “Good Luck” on the specially-created page for him by his sponsors NIIT, on their site, NIIT.com, is now up against Veselin Topalov in the third round.

Anand has a good score against the Bulgarian, who lost his first round to Kramnik on Thursday.

As Anand drew his game, so did the winners of the first day, Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko. They played against each other for an exciting draw after 35 moves from a Nimzo-Indian defence which went into the Rubinstein variation.

Kramnik, who looks for the slightest of edges to convert into wins, especially against weaker players, may have found Leko a little too strong to try the same. The Hungarian, who lives most of the time in Germany, and is very popular among chess fans and sponsors here, handled Kramnik’s attacks very well. In fact so hard did Kramnik try, there were times, he may have actually ceded som advantage to Leko. But it was all so slight that in the end the draw was the most logical result. The draw came after 35 moves.

Topalov employed the Petroff against Morozevich, who is not only unpredictable but is also given to risky play. He was better at the start, but it all backfired and also Topalov’s defence was excellent. Morozevich fought a losing battle for the second half of the game and with a clear advantage, Topalov was not going to let go. Finally he managed to log his first win after 40 moves.

In the exhbition match, Germany’s 15-year-old Arkadi Naiditsch with white scored a second win over Almira Skhripchenko Lautier to make it 2-0.

POINTS AFTER TWO ROUNDS.
1-2. Kramnik and Leko 1.5 each; 3-4. Topalov and Anand 1 each; 5-6. Adams and Morozevich 0.5 each

Pairings for third round:
Topalov v Anand;
Leko v Morozevich,
Adams v Kramnik

Earlier match report
Anand draws; Kramnik, Leko win