Viswanathan Anand played out a 29-move draw with young Chinese Wei Yi to stay ahead with fellow overnight leader Anish Giri and the victorious Shakhriyar Mamedyarov at 3.5 points after five rounds of Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here on Wednesday.
Anand, playing white, faced the Petroff Defence from Wei Yi. None of the players enjoyed any edge in the encounter that saw a series of exchanges. When the players were left with a rook, knight and three kingside pawns each, draw was agreed.
Tata Steel Chess: Adhiban shares honours with Anand; Vidit outplays Harika
B. Adhiban, playing black, had to defend his position accurately against defending champion So Wesley.
Before Magnus Carlsen relied on his calculations, and drew with a frustrated Vladimir Kramnik in 63 moves in spite of facing a two-pawn deficit in the endgame, Mamedyarov outplayed Caruana in 43 moves after establishing a virtually unstoppable queenside-pawn.
In the Challengers section, Vidit Gujrathi drew quickly in just 18 moves with Erwin L’Ami to reach four points before Anton Korobov took sole lead at 4.5 points following his 43-move win over local Jordeen van Foreest.
D. Harika engaged lower-rated Dutch rival Lucas van Foreest in an equal battle and drew in 64 moves.
Sixth round will be played on Friday, following a day of rest.
Fifth-round results (Indians unless stated):
Masters: Viswanathan Anand (3.5) drew with Wei Yi (Chn, 2.5); Gawain Jones (Eng, 2.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 3.5); Maxim Matlakov (Rus. 2.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 2.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 3.5) bt Fabiano Caruana (USA, 1.5); Peter Svidler (Rus, 2,5) bt Hou Yifan (Chn, 0.5).
Challengers: Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 2.5) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (4); D. Harika (2) drew with Lucas van Foreest (Ned, 3); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 2) lost to Anton Korobov (Ukr, 4.5); Aryan Tari (Nor, 2.5) bt Jeffery Xiong (USA, 2); Baseem Amin (Egy, 2) bt Dmitry Gordievsky (Rus, 2.5).
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