World champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Boris Gelfand of Israel in the fourth round of Tal Memorial Chess Tournament.
Playing after the first rest day, Anand got something to play for but his last World Championship challenger was also up to the task in defence and the draw was a just result.
Anand elevated himself to joint-fourth spot in the standings, moving to two points out of a possible four. Hikaru Nakamura of United States continued with his dominating form and outplayed Fabiano Caruana of Italy to jump to sole lead on three points.
Prasad in joint lead
Varna: Grandmaster S Arun Prasad crashed through the defenses of Yuri Solodovnic-henko of Ukraine to emerge as joint leader on 6.5 points after the end of the 8th and penultimate round of the Grand Europe Golden Sands tournament. Prasad shares the lead with Vladimir Georgiev of Macedonia, Zybnyk Hracek of the Czech Republic and Nils Grandelius of Sweden.
India eye a miracle
Rotterdam: An error-prone India need nothing short of a miracle to secure a direct berth in next year's hockey World Cup as they take on formidable Australia in the quarterfinals of the men's competition of the FIH World Round 3 today.
Six top teams - three each - will qualify directly for the 2014 World Cup at Hague, The Netherlands, from the two editions of FIH World League Round 3 -- the ongoing event in Rotterdam and then the next one to be held in Malaysia from June 29 to July 7.
{{/usCountry}}Six top teams - three each - will qualify directly for the 2014 World Cup at Hague, The Netherlands, from the two editions of FIH World League Round 3 -- the ongoing event in Rotterdam and then the next one to be held in Malaysia from June 29 to July 7.
{{/usCountry}}But as things stand, it looks extremely difficult for India to be among one of those six teams as they have a poor record against the Aussies. India however, can take heart from the fact that they put up a much-improved performance to eke out a fighting 3-3 draw against higher-ranked New Zealand in their last match to finish third in Pool B with two points.