Anand hangs on to joint lead

Viswanathan Anand played out a fighting draw with Russian Peter Svidler to remain in joint lead along with Magnus Carlsen of Norway after the ninth round of Morelia-Linares Chess tournament underway in Spain.

After a rather sedate eighth round, there was a tough fight on all the boards although the day produced just one decisive game when Russian Alexander Morozevich came out with his first triumph in the event at the expense of Hungarian Peter Leko.

16-year old Magnus Carlsen played it safe as white against defending champion Levon Aronian of Armenia and continued to lead the tables surprisingly with just five more rounds to come in this categry-20 double round-robin event.

For the records, both Anand and Carlsen have 5.5 points apiece and they continued to be followed by Ivanchuk who missed some real winning chances against top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in his 9th round game.

Aronian is in joint fourth spot on 4.5 points along with Svidler, who is the only unbeaten player in the tournament while Topalov is close behind them on four points.

Leko and Morozevich are at the bottom of the tables on 3.5 points apiece.

Anand had to defend for only a short while as black in a theoretical battle against Svidler. Playing the black side of a Petroff defense, the Indian ace was never in troubles even as his opponent came out with a new idea on the 25th from a game played earlier.

Anand just had to find a few correct moves to maintain the balance and the peace was signed in 41 moves.

Carlsen just repeated an earlier game in the event between Topalov and Leko to sign peace with Aronian declaring his intentions of retaining his good score and not taking enough risks with the favourable colour.

The Queen's Indian was exactly the same as the previous game till move 26 and in the next two moves the players repeated the position to split the point.

For the first time in the event, Morozevich not only got a position to his liking but was also able to reach a good end.

It was another Queen's Indian game of the day wherein the Russian held a slightly better position in the middle game and unleashed a fine exchange sacrifice to rip apart black's king side.

What followed was a treat for the spectators as Morozevich slowly tightened the noose around Leko's king and emerged victorious after 46 moves.

Topalov had a narrow escape against Ivanchuk in the other game of the day.

Going for the kill quite early, Topalov met stiff resistance from Ivanchuk who played black and was on the verge of defeat when the Ukrainian ran short of time once again in the event. The game was drawn after 77 moves.

Results round 9: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 4.5); Peter Svidler (Rus, 4.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 5.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 4) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 5); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 3.5) beat Peter Leko (Hun, 3.5)

The moves:
Peter Svidler v/s V Anand
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. c4 Nb4 9. Be2 O-O 10. a3 Nc6 11. cxd5 Qxd5 12. Nc3 Nxc3 13. bxc3 Bf5 14. Re1 Rfe8 15. Bf4 Rac8 16. h3 Be4 17. Qa4 Qf5 18. Bg3 Bc2 19. Qb5 Qxb5 20. Bxb5 a6 21. Bxc6 bxc6 22. Re5 f6 23. Ra5 Bd3 24. Ne1 Bb5 25. a4 Be2 26. Nc2 c5 27. dxc5 Kf7 28. c6 Red8 29. Ne3 Rd2 30. Rb1 Bd6 31. Bxd6 Rxd6 32. Nf5 Rxc6 33. Nd4 Rb6 34. Re1 Bd3 35. Rc5 Rd6 36. Re3 Bb1 37. Nc6 Re8 38. Nd4 Rc8 39. Re2 Bd3 40. Re1 Rd7 41. f3 draw agreed.