Top seed Viswanathan Anand got a off to a lukewarm start at the World Championships, being held to an easy draw by Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel in the opening round, in Mexico.
The Indian ace could do little with white pieces against Gelfand's solid defence and it did not take long for him to realise that breaking the ice will be difficult.
It was a dull first day as all the four games ended in draws in less than 30 moves, keeping all the eight players in this double round-robin event tied at the top on a half point each.
In the other games, reigning World champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia signed peace with compatriot Peter Svidler, Armenian Levon Aronian reached a quick deadlock against Alexander Morozevich of Russia while Alexander Grishchuk of Russia achieved the same result against Hungarian Peter Leko.
Anand will meet Aronian in the next round and play with black pieces. In the last classical encounter, Aronian had beaten Anand with the favourable colour and the Indian will be out there to set the scores right.
Anand faced the Petroff defense that is slowly becoming one of the main variations for Gelfand as black. And given the solidity of the opening it was always going to be a tough nut to crack.
Anand went for a topical variation but Gelfand was well-armed to tackle the complications. The pieces got exchanged as if in a heap and the peace was signed in just 22 moves, making it the shortest game of the day.
Kramnik's realisation to sign peace came just a move later than Anand. Apparently, the Russian was surprised with Svidler's choice of Slav defense in the beginning and pondered for quite sometime over his moves to start with.
Svidler enjoyed the moment for sometime and had a level position on board when the draw proposal came. Morozevich faced the Queen's Indian defense against Aronian as black and here too the exchanges of pieces at regular intervals did not enthuse the chess buffs much. It was already an endgame on board by moves 25 when the players shook hands.
Alexander Grishchuk played on till move 28 in a Ruy Lopez closed game but Leko remained alert throughout. Fighting for an initiative earlier on, Grishchuk went for simplifications that resulted in a level minor pieces endgame.
Results round 1: Viswanathan Anand (Ind) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus); Alexander Grishchuk (Rus) drew with Peter Leko (Hun); Alexander Morozevich (Rus) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm).
The moves (All games):
V Anand v/s Boris Gelfand
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7 7. Be3 Nd7 8. Qd2 Ne5 9. O-O-O O-O 10. h4 Re8 11. h5 Bf6 12. Nh2 h6 13. Be2 Be6 14. f4 Nc4 15. Bxc4 Bxc4 16. b3 Bb5 17. Rhg1 Re4 18. Ng4 Qe7 19. Rde1 Re8 20. Bf2 Qd8 21. Rxe4 Rxe4 22. Re1 Rxe1+. Game drawn.
Vladimir Kramnik v/s Peter Svidler
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bxf6 Qxf6 7. e3 Nd7 8. Bd3 g6 9. e4 dxc4 10. e5 Qe7 11. Bxc4 Bg7 12. O-O O-O 13. Re1 Rd8 14. Qe2 b6 15. Rad1 a5 16. Bd3 Bb7 17. Be4 b5 18. h4 Nb6 19. Bb1 c5 20. Nxb5 Ba6 21. h5 g5 22. Nh2 Rxd4 23. Rxd4. Game drawn.
Alexander Morozevich v/s Levon Aronian
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. e3 g6 8. h4 Bg7 9. h5 Nd7 10. Bd3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 e5 12. Qc2 Qe7 13. Be4 Bxe4 14. Qxe4 O-O 15. hxg6 hxg6 16. a4 c5 17. Ba3 Rfe8 18. Rc1 exd4 19. Qxe7 Rxe7 20. cxd4 Re4 21. Kf1 cxd4 22. exd4 Nf8 23. g3 Rd8 24. Rc7 Ree8 25. Rxa7 Ra8. Game drawn
Alexander Grishchuk v/s Peter Leko
1. e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3 Bb7 9. d3 d6 10. a3 Qd7 11. Nc3 Rfe8 12. a4 b4 13. Ne2 d5 14. exd5 Nxd5 15. Ng3 Bf8 16. a5 Nd4 17. Nxd4 exd4 18. Bd2 Nf6 19. Rxe8 Rxe8 20. Bg5 Qc6 21. Qf1 Qd6 22. Re1 Re5 23. Rxe5 Qxe5 24. Bxf6 Qxf6 25. Qe2 g6 26. Qg4 Bd6 27. Ne4 Qf4 28. Qxf4.Game drawn.