Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand played out yet another draw as he held world champion Magnus Carlsen in 45 moves in the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Saturday night.
The former world champion, who is the lowest rated player in this 10-player round-robin event, now has two points from four outings and is tied third after his result against Chinese GM Liren Ding was removed from the overall standings as the latter pulled out of the tournament following a hip surgery before the half way stage.
Anand, playing black, was solid in the Sicilian defence against world champion Carlsen and at no point allowed the local to gain any advantage. The world champion, however, continues to hold a one point lead over his opponents having scored two wins and three draws in his five outings.
US GM Fabiano Caruana was the only one to score a victory on Saturday as he got the better of Russia’s Sergei Karjakin in 41 moves to register his first win in the competition after having lost the opener against Carlsen.
The world championship candidate got an extra day of rest as he was scheduled to face Ding in the fourth round and made the most of it by preparing well for his match against Karjakin, who had earned a full point in the earlier round.
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