Anand drops to third place with his third successive draw

Bilbao, Spain, Sep 5 (UNI) World champion Viswanathan Anand slipped to joint third place as he played his third successive draw with Levon Aronian of Armenia at the Bilbao chess Grand Slam final here.

Anand now has three points and is trailing the tournament leader Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria by two points, and is one point behind Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the soccer-like scoring system that gives three points for a win and one for a draw.

In a Slav defence game, Anand with black pieces gave a solid display against Aronian yesterday but eventually had to settle for a draw.

After the opening round, the players reached a position akin to the Queen's gambit accepted and even as Aronian tried hard, Anand did not lose his guard was always on guard. Finally after 42 moves, both the players settled for a draw.

In the other two games of the six-player double round robin event, Topalov overpowered Carlsen while Azerbaijani Teimour Radjabov played out a draw with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.

With seven rounds still to be played, Topalov with one win and draw has five points while Carlsen with a win, one loss and one draw has four points in his kitty.

Results round 3: Levon Aronian (Arm, 2) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 3); Teinour Radjabov (Aze, 3) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 3); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 4) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul, 5).

The moves: Aronian v/s Anand 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 e6 6. e3 c5 7. Bxc4 Nc6 8. O-O cxd4 9. exd4 Be7 10.

Be3 O-O 11. Ne5 Nd5 12. Nxd5 exd5 13. Bd3 g6 14. a5 Bf6 15. Nxc6 bxc6 16. Qc1 Bd7 17. Qc3 Qb8 18. g3 Be7 19. Bf4 Bb4 20. Bxb8 Bxc3 21. Bxa7 Bxb2 22. Bc5 Bxa1 23. Rxa1 Rfb8 24. h4 Bf5 25. Bxf5 gxf5 26. a6 h5 27. a7 Rb7 28. Kg2 Kg7 29. Kf3 f6 30. Ra6 Rc7 31. Kf4 Kg6 32. f3 Rcc8 33. g4 fxg4 34. fxg4 hxg4 35. Kxg4 Rh8 36. Rxc6 Rae8 37. Bd6 Re4+ 38. Bf4 Rxd4 39. Ra6 Ra8 40. h5+ Kh7 41. Kf5 Rb4 42. Bb8 Rbxb8 draw.

UNI XC RAR PY HT1915