Viswanathan Anand Opens Account, Draws With Topalov

Vishwanathan Anand opens his account with a draw against Topalov of Bulgaria in the 3rd round of the Sinquefield Cup.

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand played out a draw with table-topper Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the third round to open his account in the Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess tour.

After two back-to-back defeats in the first two rounds, Anand needed a breather and while the Indian ace gave nothing away to Topalov, his own bid for an advantage was also subtly tackled by the tournament leader.

The day produced just two decisive games with world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway coming out trumps against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and local wild card Wesley So cruising past Alexander Grischuk of Russia.

Levon Aronian of Armenia played out a draw with Anish Giri of Holland while in the other game of the day, the all-American duel between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana also ended peacefully.

With six rounds to come in the USD 3,00,000 prize money tournament, Topalov remains on top of the tables with 2.5 points in his bag and is now followed by Carlsen, Giri and Aronian who all have two points each.

Nakamura, Wesley So and Vachier-Lagrave are tied fifth at 1.5 points, a half ahead of Grischuk who remained on one point. Anand and Caruana are currently at the bottom of the tables with just a half point each.