Anand draws with Topalov

Viswanathan Anand played out an effortless draw with archrival and top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the first round of Morelia-Linares chess tournament in Morelia, Mexico, on Sunday.

Having lost to Topalov as black recently in the Corus tournament, this proved a good result by Anand, who will now look forward to his first white game in the event against Peter Svidler of Russia in the second round.

The opening day of the tournament, being played by eight players in round-robin format, provided just one decisive result but was not devoid of any excitement as all the four games were fought hard and provided enough entertainment.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway stole day one honours after putting it across Alexander Morozevich of Russia to emerge early sole leader in the category-20 tournament, to be played in two phases, in Morelia and later Linares in Spain.

With Anand and Topalov signing peace, Svidler and Aronian followed suit and even though Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk appeared in fine fettle against Hungarian Peter Leko, the 'time-factor' forced the game to be drawn leaving all these six players in joint second spot on half a point.

Anand employed the Queen's Indian defense to counter Topalov's queen pawn game and had no troubles whatsoever in maintaining the balance in the middle game.

The Bulgarian strove for some advantage in the queenside with a typical break through but the Indian was well course not to allow any leverage to his opponent. By move 20 two minor pieces and a couple of pawns had already been exchanged and there was no doubt about the outcome of the game. The peace was signed in 30 moves.

Carlsen displayed his best positional skills in outwitting Morozevich from what many thought should have been a draw. Playing with the slightly favourable colour, the Norwegian super-talent employed the age-old Fianchetto variation against the King's Indian defense.

He had Morozevich under trouble in the middle game when pressure was exerted on both flanks. Morozevich sacrificed a pawn leading to a rook and opposite colour Bishops endgame where a surprise followed him by way of a simple tactic through which Carlsen knocked down another pawn. Morozevich tried tricks but was kept in check to end the game in 68 moves.

Svidler allowed the Marshall gambit against Aronian, who played black and could not really get any serious advantage. The pieces got traded at regular intervals and the peace was signed in a queen and rook endgame after 38 moves.

Ivanchuk had Leko on the ropes in the middle game arising out of a Scotch opening but the Ukrainian, who replaced Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan just a day before the event, fell under acute time pressure that forced him to go for perpetual checks.

The results (Round 1): Veselin Topalov (Bul) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind); Peter Svidler (Rus) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm); Magnus Carlsen (Nor) beat Alexander Morozevich (Rus); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Peter Leko (Hun).

The moves:

Veselin Topalov v/s V Anand

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. b3 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Be7 7. Bg2 c6 8. Bc3 d5 9. Ne5 Nfd7 10. Nxd7 Nxd7 11. Nd2 O-O 12. O-O Nf6 13. e4 dxe4 14. Nxe4 b5 15. Qe2 bxc4 16. Rfd1 Nd5 17. Be1 Nb6 18. Nc5 Qc8 19. Nxa6 Qxa6 20. a4 Rab8 21. Bf3 Bf6 22. Rac1 Nd5 23. Qxc4 Qb7 24. Qxc6 Qxb3 25. Be4 Nb4 26. Qd7 a5 27. Rb1 Qa2 28. Qa7 Qxa4 29. Ra1 Qb5 30. Qxa5 Nd5 draw agreed.