Corus Chess: Anand draws again, Abhijeet wins

Viswanathan Anand's hunt for an elusive victory in the 'A' group continued as he played out his sixth draw on the trot but former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta won an exciting game in the 'C' group of the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.

World champion Anand drew with white pieces against Magnus Carlsen of Norway and moved to three points out of a possible six.

Spaniard Alexei Shirov's juggernaut was halted by Nigel Short of England in the first draw for the former after five successive wins.

Shirov took his tally to 5.5 points out of a possible six and remained one and half points ahead of nearest rivals Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura of United States, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.

With Leinier Dominguez occupying the sixth spot on 3.5 points, Anand slipped to the joint seventh spot along with Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Peter Leko of Hungary.

Seven rounds still remain in the category-19 tournament. Abhijeet Gupta raised visions of an improved performance after he came good against Danielle Vocaturo of Italy and moved to four points in the 'C' group.

Ray Robson, a 15-year-old American, continued to dominate this section with another sparkling victory at the expense of Bok Benjamin of Holland.