World rapid champion Viswanathan Anand decided to play safe against World No 3 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and easily drew the ninth round game in the Corus chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, in the Netherlands.
With just four rounds to come in this category 19 event, Anand slipped a little more and joined Briton Michael Adams in joint-third spot while Hungarian Peter Leko joined Topalov in the lead on six points from 10 games with a hard-earned victory over Commonwealth champion Nigel Short.
While both Anand and Adams are on 5.5 points, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia inched up to five points after sharing honours with Dutch star Loek Van Wely.
The next spot in the standings is occupied by Russian Alexander Grischuk, Cuban Lazaro Bruzon and Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov, who all have 4.5 points each.
Anand played an easy game as black and his Petroff defence was a clear indication that he was in no mood to spoil his chances with black.
The Indian ace does not enjoy a good score against Topalov especially with black pieces in the recent past and that also played a significant part in this important contest.
Playing just according to the requirement of the position Anand achieved the equality he was looking for in no time and the players signed truce in just 25 moves when the queens got traded.
Leko was in his element against Short, who was outdone quite easily in a King pawn game. The Hungarian showed depth in his opening preparation and came out with a significant advantage after the dust settled.
Short tried hard after being pushed to the wall but his counter active attempts were thwarted quite easily. The game lasted just 37 moves.
In the other decisive games of the day, Russian Alexander Morozevich reached another mark of respectability after outplaying Dutchman Ivan Sokolov while Peter Svidelr eventually gave an indication of his true strength with a fine victory over compatriot Alexander Grischuk.
Results round 9:
Veselin Topalov (Bul, 6) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 5.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 5) drew with Loek Van Wely (Ned, 4.5); Peter Leko (Hun, 6) drew with Nigel Short (Eng,4); Judit Polgar (Hun, 4) drew with Lazaro Bruzon (Cub, 4.5); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 4.5) drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 5.5); Ivan Sokolov (Ned, 2.5) lost to Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 3); Peter Svidler (Rus, 4) beat Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 4.5).