World Champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw against Briton Michael Adams with black pieces in the first round of third Chess Classic here.
Taking into account his mediocre result in the just finished Tal Memorial, where the World Champion ended with as many as nine draws, this was Anand's 10th draw in a row in classical chess.
World Number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway snatched an early lead after defeating the lowest-ranked David Howell of England in a tense game.
In the other two games of the day, Levon Aronian spoilt a position of strength against Luke McShane of England while Vadimir Kramnik of Russia played out a draw with Hikaru Nakamura of United States.
With the soccer-like scoring system in place with three points for a win and one for a draw, the Norwegian enjoys a two-point lead over his nearest rivals as the other games ended in draws.
Anand, Kramnik, Adams and Nakamura share the second spot with one point each.
Nigel Short is yet to play a game while Howell stands at the bottom of the table. Anand went for the Sicilian Najdorf and faced a harmless-looking Classical set up from Adams who played white.
The middle game witnessed exchanges at regular intervals and the experts even thought that Anand might have had some chances.
However, with precise liquidation, Adams came down to a queen and pawns endgame which was a routine draw.
Commentator Daniel King cheekily reminded the world champion that he had now drawn 10 games in a row and that a win counts for three points in London. Anand was not at all put out and his reply was self-deprecating. “Even if they had been using a 9-1-0 scoring system in Moscow, I would probably still have drawn all my games.”
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