Anand draws Shirov

Mallorca, Spain:

Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand settled for another easy draw with black against Spanish rival Alexei Shirov in the eighth round of the 36th Chess Olympiad today. Ukraine consolidated it position at the top of the tables as Vassily Ivanchuk also drew with black pieces against Bulgarian Kirli Georgiev to take the team's tally to 22 points. In August earlier this year, Anand had beaten Alexei Shirov 5-3 in a one sided affair at Mainz Chess Classics and there too Anand had played the Spanish as black. Anand obviously wanted to find out whether Shirov had anything in particular against him after that match and as it turned out, the Latvian born Spaniard could not quite make any impression. Things came easy for Anand even though some computer programmes regarded his position as slightly worse in the ensuing middle game. Trading one minor piece after another, the Indian ace made sure that Shirov would not be able to make any decisive progress despite his superior pawn structure. With the exchange of the last minor piece imminent, the players agreed for truce. The game lasted 24 moves taking the Indian points tally to 19. (PTI)