Anand settles for another draw

Linares:

World Cup champion Viswanathan Anand played his third successive draw, settling for peace with Young Beast from Baku Teimour Radjabov in the fifth round of the 20th Linares Super Grandmaster chess tournament. Grandmaster Peter Leko of Hungary emerged as sole leader by clinically dismissing the challenge of Francisco Vallejo of Spain on a day that witnessed Garry Kasparov strike form with a brilliant onslaught against world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. Leko has thus far amassed three points from his four games so far and is trailed by Anand, and Braingames Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia with 2.5 points each in their kitty from four games. Also on 2.5 points is Radjabov but he has played one extra game than both Kramnik and Anand. Both Kasparov and Ponomariov, who will be playing their unified championship chess in June this year, entered the game after an indifferent display so far in the tournament. Vallejo remained on 1.5 points after bowing to Leko. But while the Russian Grandmaster turned the corner and played some brilliant chess to raise his tally to two points, Ponomariov's slump continued and the Ukranian remained at the bottom of the tables with just one point from five games. (PTI)