Anand draws again, slips to joint 5th

Viswanathan Anand's quest for an elusive win continued unabated as the Indian split points with Hungarian Peter Leko for his fifth draw on the trot in the ongoing Corus Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.

With 2.5 points and joint fifth in the table, Anand would have to come up with a vastly improved show in the subsequent rounds if he is to bridge the widening gap between him and Group A leader Alexei Shirov (5), who has won all five games so far.

Among other Indians, Parimarjan Negi got his first full point at the expense of American Varuzhan Akobian in Group B, while P Harikrishna settled for a draw but they were outshone by Grandmaster Anish Giri, who continued his dream run and jumped in to sole lead following another impressive victory.

In Group A, Shirov now enjoys a handsome 1.5 points lead over nearest rivals Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Hikaru Nakamura of the US.

Russian Vladimir Kramnik scored his first victory of the year to move to sole fourth spot on three points while Anand

shares the fifth spot with defending champion Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Leinier Dominguez of Cuba.