World champion Viswanathan Anand ended the opening day of the Mainz Chess Classic on a positive note defeating Russian Alexander Morozevich to emerge as the joint leader in the Grenkeleasing rapid world championship.
The 10-time winner Anand could do little with his white pieces against Norwegian sensation Magnus Carlsen and world's strongest ever woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary and settled for draws in the first two rounds while his victory as black against Morozevich raised visions of the 11th title victory here for the Indian ace.
The four-player double-robin event will see best two fighting it out for the title. The games are being played on a rapid chess format with 20 minutes to each player and a 5 second increment after every move is made.
The victory in the third round came in handy for Anand as he took his personal tally to 2 points out of a possible 3 to share the lead with Carlsen whose victory came over an out of sort Judit Polgar who could just manage a half point in the first three rounds.
Anand won with black pieces against Morozevich who played a sharp English attack but could not get his pieces to perform the desired action. After a tense middle game, Anand knocked down one pawn and cruised home easily thereafter. The game lasted 48 moves.
Carlsen matched Anand in terms of winning percentage as the Norwegian won against Polgar from a keenly contested middle game arising out of a Sicilian Dragon.
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