Candidates: Anand held by Anish Giri

Anand seemed better off at one stage but he let the advantage slip. Giri, too, faltered with a late rook-move and thereafter, the youngster had no option but to escape with a draw following perpetual checks.

Viswanathan Anand during the 12th round of Candidates chess tournament.

Viswanathan Anand drew with Anish Giri to move into temporary joint lead midway through the 13th and penultimate round of the World Candidates chess tournament in Moscow on Sunday. Later in the day, Sergey Karjakin drew with Levon Aronian to share the lead with Fabiano Caruana.

Anand seemed better off at one stage but he let the advantage slip. Giri, too, faltered with a late rook-move and thereafter, the youngster had no option but to escape with a draw following perpetual checks.

The half-a-point earned after a 52-move draw took Anand’s tally to seven points. Caruana was pressing for victory over Peter Svidler while Levon Aronian was doing the same against Karjakin in the two engaging on-going contests.

In other contests of the day, Hikaru Nakamura nailed last-man Veselin Topalov to move to 6.5 points while Fabiano Caruana agreed to a draw with Peter Svidler.

The results:

13th round: Viswanathan Anand (7) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 6.5); Fabiano Caruana (US, 7.5) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 6.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 6.5) lost to Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 7.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 4) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (US, 6.5).