Zurich (Switzerland), Feb 24: World champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the first round of the Zurich Chess Challenge that got underway here.
Playing black in the opener of his third super tournament of the year, Anand was seen pushing for an advantage as black and Caruana had to defend precisely from a difficult position but the Italian held fort to force the split of the point.
The other game of the four-player double round-robin tournament between Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Boris Gelfand of Israel also ended in a draw leaving the four participants as equals after the first round with half a point each.
With nothing to separate the four contestants after the first round, Anand has every reasons to be pleased with his effort in the opener. The Indian ace had black against a formidable Caruana but gave him no chance whatsoever in a Sicilian Najdorf game as black.
For some reasons, Caruana — after scaling the top five world ranking — has become a sought after player and Anand yet again proved that the youngster has to prove himself over and over again.
At the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk Aan Zee at Holland, Anand had beaten Caruana as black and then two draws had prevailed at Grenke Chess Classic that Anand won in style ahead of the Italian. (PTI)
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