Anand, Adams play a quick draw

Vishwanathan Anand and Michael Adams played their second draw of the tournament as they settled for a quick truce in just 23 moves and in less than an hour-and-a-quarter in the seventh round of the Sparkassen Dortmund chess meeting 2001 in Dortmund at the Operahaus.

Anand, the FIDE World champion and brand ambassador for the Indian IT giant NIIT, must have been happy to quickly draw the game ahead of his next clash with Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov, to whom he lost in the first half.

Anand will have white pieces in this clash with the Bulgarian in the eighth round. Adams will have black against Kramnik in the next round.

Anand, who is going through one of roughest patches in this tournament, where he was joint first last year, now has 2.5 points from seven rounds. Adams has the same and the two bring up the rear in the six-man tournament.

The Adams-Anand was in the Sicilian, as were the other two games on the day. In Adams-Anand game, it went into the Rossolimo variation. With no excitement coming forth from either side, the two were content to agree to a draw in 23 moves.

Anand admitted there was nothing in the game, when the draw as agreed to.

"There was nothing in the game, so it was okay for a draw," said Anand and left the venue soon after with his wife, Aruna.

Anand's second Elizbar Ubilava has taken a break and is not here for this major event. It has surprised many, but it was clearly something Anand had agreed to with Ubilava long before the tournament.

Anand's next three opponents in that order are Topalov, Kramnik and Leko and the Indian will have white against Topalov and Leko and will have black against Kramnik.

In normal circumstances Anand may well have used a clash against Adams to get back into a tournament since he has such a huge plus against the English player.

The NIIT-sponsored Anand has a 18-4 score against Adams and with white it is a whopping 15-1. With black Adams is 3-4. In all the two players have played 54 times till this match.

The Leko-Kramnik game was also a Sicilian but it went into the Scheveningen and Kramnik clearly looked like trying for a win avoiding Leko's attempt to take the game into a draw. The game was still in progress.

In the third game, against a Sicilian, Topalov and Moorzevich looked fairly equal but both players are in an attacking mood.