Tata Steel Chess: Anand draws with Svidler, Vidit in joint lead

With five rounds to go, Anand (4.5 points) retained his joint sixth place with Sergey Karjakin who drew with B. Adhiban in 43 moves.

With five rounds to go, Anand (4.5 points) retained his joint sixth place with Sergey Karjakin who drew with B. Adhiban in 43 moves.

Treading carefully, Viswanathan Anand and Peter Svidler played out a 27-move draw in their dull eighth-round encounter before the day produced a series of dramatic results in both sections of the Tata Steel chess tournament here on Sunday.

With five rounds to go, Anand (4.5 points) retained his joint sixth place with Sergey Karjakin who drew with B. Adhiban in 43 moves.

Tata Steel Chess: Anand loses to Kramnik; Mamedyarov extends lead

Going into Monday’s rest day, overnight leader Shakhriyar Mamedyarov’s dream run came to a rude halt after the Azerbaijani ran into Anish Giri and lost in 32 moves.

By bouncing back from a poor position to beat England’s Gawain Jones, Magnus Carlsen joined Giri and Mamedyarov at the top with 5.5 points.

In the Challengers section, too, overnight leader Anton Korobov lost and was made to share the lead with a victorious Vidit Gujrathi at six points.

Tata Steel chess: Anand draws with Giri, Adhiban lets Mamedyarov off the hook

Before Korobov lost to second seeded Egyptian Baseem Amin, Vidit ended the sequence of three drawn games by beating Russia’s Dmitry Gordievsky in 32 moves with black pieces.

Later, D. Harika drew with USA’s Jeffery Xiong in 32 moves.

Eighth-round results (Indians unless stated):

Masters: Peter Svidler (Rus, 4) drew with Viswanathan Anand (4.5); B. Adhiban (2) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 4.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 5.5) bt Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 5.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5.5) bt Gawain Jones (Eng, 3.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 5) drew with Wesley So (USA, 5); Wei Yi (Chn, 3) drew with Maxim Matlakov (Rus, 4); Hou Yifan (Chn, 1) lost to Fabiano Caruana (USA, 3).

Challengers: Dmitry Gordievsky (Rus, 3.5) lost to Vidit Gujrathi (6); Jeffery Xiong (USA, 3.5) drew with D. Harika (3); Anton Korobov (Ukr, 6) lost to Bassen Amin (Egy, 4); Benjamin Bok (Ned, 4) bt Lucas van Foreest (Ned, 4); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 4) bt Aryan Tari (Nor, 3.5); Olga Girya (Rus, 2.5) lost to Michal Krasenkow (Pol, 4); Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 3) lost to Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 4).