Quick draw for Anand in round 4

Vishwanathan Anand got some welcome rest as his first game against Russian Alexey Dreev, in the fourth round at the World chess championship, ended in a quick draw after just 12 moves at the Kremlin Palace on Monday evening.

The two players were the first to finish their game. Even before the other games had reached the middle game they decided to split the point and retire for the day.

Anand, the NIIT brand ambassador, will have white pieces in the second game of the fourth round, which will be held on Tuesday.

In the first game, Dreev opened with d4 and it went into the Petrosyan variation of Queen’s Indian defence. There was little action in the game, except that Dreev prompted an early exchange of queens by the seventh move.

With little action happening, a draw was a logical result and it suited Anand.

The Indian ace had a long Sunday after having played a regulation game and then two long rapid games in the tie-breaker.

Anand had played 62 and 71moves in the two games on Sunday before moving past France’s Vladislav Tkachiev.

"I was okay with a draw with black," said Anand.

Ukraine's Ruslan Ponmariov scored the big upset of the day, when he shocked Alexander Morozevich of Russia. The opening was a French Winawer and Moro’s pawn structure was disrupted early in the game.

Ponomariov had a passer pawn and that helped him gain a decisive edge and then Moorzevich made a big mistake, losing his rook in the end game and resigned on the 60th move.

Vassily Ivanchuk scored a full point against China’s Ye Jiangchuan in a game that had a King’s Indian defence. Ivanchuk won in 37 moves and needs only a draw to enter the last eight.

The third winner on Monday was Evegeny Bareev, who beat Jaan Ehlvest in 44 moves.

The game was in the Bogo Indian defense.

Michael Adams drew with Peter Svidler despite being better in a Sicilian Najdorf game, while Joel Lautier was lucky to get a draw against Predrag Nikolic in Nimzo Indian game.

Zurab Azmaiparashvili drew with Boris Gelfand and Veselin Topalov and Alexei Shirov played a long 80-move draw.

In the women’s section, former world champion Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia lost her first game to China-born Dutch player Peng Zhaoqin. It was the only result of the four games.

The other three quarter finals between Alexnadra Kosetniuk and Almira Skripchenko; Nino Khurtsidze and Zhu Chen and Xu Yuhua and Cristina Foisor ended in draws.

Moves of Dreev-Anand match in the fourth round:

Dreev, A v Anand, V
1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. Bg5 Be7 7. Qa4+ Qd7 8. Qxd7+ Nbxd7 9. Nb5 Bd8 10. cxd5 Nxd5 11. e4 N5f6 12. Rc1 1/2-1/2 (Draw)

Earlier reports
Anand through to last 16
Anand settles for draw, Van Wely loses
Anand enters third round
Anand scores quick win
Anand moves into second round
Anand wins second game
Anand shocked in opening round