Draw keeps Anand on top

After ambushing top seed Levon Aronian in the opening round, Viswanathan Anand showed his superior preparation once again by holding Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to an easy draw with black pieces.

After ambushing top seed and favourite Levon Aronian in the opening round, Viswanathan Anand showed his superior preparation once again by holding former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to an easy draw with black pieces in the second round of the Candidates Tournament on Friday.

While Anand emerged victorious on Thursday and the games on the remaining three boards ended in a draw, there were decisive results on three boards while Anand and Topalov massacred pieces on the board.

Anand remained on the top with 1.5 points from two games and was joined by the Russian duo, Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler, who defeated Sergey Karjakin and Dmitry Andreikin respectively in two all-Russian encounters.

Aronian seems to have swiftly overcome the defeat against Anand and came up with a superb victory against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. Aronian was sharing the fourth spot with Topalov at one point with Karjakin and Andreikin at half-point each.