Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Russian-turned-Dutchman Sergei Tiviakov in the 11th round of Corus International chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands.
Looking for his record fifth title in the first big event of the year, Anand took his tally to 8 points out of a possible 11 and remained on second spot behind World champion Vaselin Topalov of Bulgaria who drew a keenly contested game with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.
With just two rounds to come in the category-19 round robin event, Topalov is now on 8 points and plays against Anand in what is perceived as the decider for the crown, in the next round.
A full point behind Anand is the trio of Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, Boris Gelfand of Israel and English Michael Adams, who all have 6.5 points each while Ivanchuk is next in the line on six points.
The draw against Tiviakov might prove costly for the Indian ace in the rounds to come but the Dutch deserved all credit for a virtuous performance with black pieces. Unwilling to try known paths against Anand, Tiviakov went for the Scandinavian defense against Anand and in that too went for a relatively less played variation.
Anand definitely had an opening advantage but could not find anything decisive in the middle game. Tiviakov was back after trading the queens when the ensuing endgame was level. The draw was agreed to after 50 moves.