Anand draws, title hunt as good as over

With just two rounds remaining in the tourney, Anand aggregates 6.5, a full point less than the chart topper, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

Viswanathan Anand's chances of retaining the title appeared slim after the Indian Super Grandmaster was held by Alexey Shirov of Spain in the 11th round of the Corus Chess Tournament on Friday.

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With just two rounds remaining in the tourney, Anand aggregates 6.5, a full point less than the chart topper, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, who has a game in hand.

Anand failed to cash in on the advantage of playing with white pieces and both the players settled for a draw after 30 moves.

Anand takes on Dutch Sergey Tiviakov in the penultimate round on Saturday.