Corus Chess: Anand draws again; Hari, Abhijeet record wins

World champion Viswanathan Anand settled for his third successive draw, but P Harikrishna and Abhijeet Gupta posted wins in their respective groups on a reasonably good day for the Indians in the third round of the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.

Anand signed peace with Cuban Leinier Dominguez in the third round of the elite 'A' group. The Indian ace remained without a win for the third day running while Alexei Shirov of Spain cruised to his third victory in a row to maintain his sole lead.

The Spaniard defeated local hopeful Sergei Tiviakov and has clearly been the best performer thus far.

World No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Hikaru Nakamura of US are not too far behind with 2.5 points each.

Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine occupies the fourth spot on 2 points while Anand shares the fifth spot along with Dominguez, defending champion Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

Ten rounds are still to go in this category-19 round robin tournament.

In the 'B' group, Grandmaster P Harikrishna recorded his first victory at the expense of Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia, while Parimarjan Negi showcased his deep preparation to hold top seed Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany.

Ni Hua of China joined Anish Giri in the lead in this section. Both the leaders have an identical 2.5 points from three games and are followed by Naiditsch who is a half point behind.

Parimarjan and Harikrishna share the fourth spot on 1.5 points each along with six others.

Before Harikrishna's victory over Muzychuk, former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta scored the first Indian victory in Corus this year accounting for Stefan Kuipers of Holland.

After two draws, Abhijeet won a fine tactical game to reach two points.

The leaders in this group are Daniele Vocaturo of Italy, Ray Robson of US and Li Chao of China who all have 2.5 points each.

Results round 3:

Group A:

Leinier Dominguez (Cub, 1.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 1.5); Peter Leko (Hun, 1) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 1.5); Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 1) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 1.5); Sergey Tiviakov (Ned, 1) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp, 3); Jan Smeets (Ned, 0.5) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 2); Loek van Wely (Ned, 1) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 0.5) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2.5).

Group B:

Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 1.5) drew with Erwin l'Ami (Ned, 1.5); Tomi Nyback (Fin, 1) lost to Ni Hua (Chn, 2.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 2.5) drew with Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 0.5); David Howell (Eng, 1.5) drew with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 1.5); Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 1) lost to Pentala Harikrishna (Ind, 1.5); Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 2) drew with Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 1.5); Wesley So (Phi, 1.5) drew with Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 1).

Group C:

Robin Swinkels (Ned, 1.5) beat Soumya Swaminathan (Ind, 0.5); Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 1) drew with Ray Robson (USA, 2.5); Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 1.5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 2); Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 2) drew with Nils Grandelius (Swe, 1.5); Benjamin Bok (Ned, 0.5) lost to Kjetil Lie (Nor, 1.5); Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 2.5) beat Robin van Kampen (Ned, 1); Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 0.5) lost to Li Chao (Chn, 2.5).