Vishwanathan Anand got his campaign off to a flying start in the 20th Linares Super Grandmasters chess tournament, beating World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in a first round match.

But the much awaited clash between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik turned out to be a damp squib, petering out to a draw in just 18 moves.

In another game, Hungarian Peter Leko gave a tactical lesson to tournament baby Teimour Radjabov, 15, en route to securing the full point.

Playing white, Anand was at his technical best while crushing Ponomariov. The 'Speed King' was remorseless once he got the upper hand and won in 64 moves.

The win was just another attestation of the superlative form which won him the prestigious Corus Chess title last month.

After a beating in the Sicilian defence in Corus at the hands of Anand, Ponomariov appeared in no mood to try for any complicated position. The Ukrainian, the youngest ever world champion, instead went for something profound -- The Berlin defence which had troubled Anand a bit in his game against Polish Grandmaster Michal Krasenkow in their last encounter.

Anand obviously had done the homework and got a tiny advantage out of the opening. Routine exchanges led the position to minor pieces endgame where Anand's king found itself much better placed to do the executioner's job.

Ponomariov got rid of the perennial pawn weakness of the queenside with some imaginative manoeuvres but it simply did not prove enough as Anand marched his king to the centre and picked up a piece with meticulously planned move.

Leko opened with the queen's Indian defence as black and had little trouble in obtaining a dynamic equilibrium even as Radjabov looked hooked on a kingside attack. The middle game was fierce with Radjabov going for a piece sacrifice after opening up the centre.

Leko did well to get the queens traded just when it seemed that Radjabov had managed a semblance of an attack against the black king and swiftly changed gears to move into a better endgame with queen side pawn majority.

Radjabov failed to make a match of it thereon and resigned after 46 moves.

Kramnik and Kasparov were involved in a sort of shadow boxing resulting in a dull draw from a queen's gambit accepted where the former played white.

The other contender in the fray, local star Francisco Vallejo Pons had a bye in the first round.

The tournament is being played on a double round-robin basis which means all the seven participants will play against each other twice.

Results (Round 1):

Vishwanathan Anand beat Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) drew Garry Kasparov (Rus); Teimour Radjabov (Azeeko (Hun); Francisco Vallejo Pons (Esp) had a bye.

Pairing (Round 2): Kasparov vs Radjabov; Ponomariov vs Kramnik; Vallejo Pons vs Anand; Leko - bye.