Anand joint leader at Mtel Masters

Sofia (Bulgaria): Viswanathan Anand played out a safe draw with former Russian champion Peter Svidler to move into joint lead after the fifth round of the Mtel Masters Chess tournament in Sofia.

Anand did not face any troubles with his black pieces against Svidler in the Ruy Lopez closed opening by the latter.

Coming out with a relatively new plan in the opening, Anand parted with his two Bishops for two white knights early in the middle game and posted his own knights in desirable squares to maintain the balance.

Svidler was forced to exchange another set of minor piece when Anand made some headway and thereafter it was a nearly impregnable position where Svidler repeated moves to call it truce after 38 moves.

Anand has joined Gata Kamsky of USA, who lost to World Champion Veselin Topalov, at the top of the table.

After drawing three of his first four games and a lone loss against Anand in the second round of the event, Topalov was brilliance personified against Kamsky.

The Bulgarian defending champion knew if he had to retain chances to be in the title race he had to beat one of the direct rivals Kamsky and he did that in great style.

Topalov is known for his uncompromising play and Kamsky learned it the hard way just while he thought he had a reasonable position out of his Slav defence as black.

He played the opening like a book retaining slight advantage after several manoeuvres while in the middle game the onlookers were treated to tactical magic when he sacrificed an exchange to get the king side attack rolling.

Kamsky came up with some good defence but the position was just too difficult to salvage.

Topalov continued to exert pressure on the king side and in the end when he forcibly won Kamsky's queen to win the game.

The first victory in the event for Topalov came after 42 moves.

The third game of the six-players double round-robin ended in a draw between former World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine and Etienne Bacrot of France.

Ponomariov opted for the Anti Marshall as white against Bacrot without much success.

It was intense middle game in which Ponomariov was striving for some king side attack but the Frenchmen kept his guard on and even subtle exchange leading to some weaknesses in the Bacrot's position did not prove good enough.

After the trading of both the rooks the players arrived at a queen and pawn endgame where the peace was signed vide repetition after 47 moves.

At the half way stage, both Kamsky and Anand have an identical 3.5 points now while Topalov and Svidler are next in line on 2.5 points apiece.

The fifth spot is shared by Ponomariov and Bacrot on 1.5 points with five rounds still to come in the strongest tournament of the year.

(With inputs from PTI)