Anand held by Caruana, slips to third

Baden, February 9, 2013: World champion Viswanathan Anand slipped to joint third after being held to a draw by second seed Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the second round of the Grenke Chess Classic in Baden, Germany.

With two draws from two games, the Indian took his tally to one point.

His first white game in the tournament did not come good as Caruana came up with fine counter-play to maintain the balance.

Caruana, who had beaten Georg Meier of Germany in the first round of this six-player double round-robin tournament, was joined at the top by German player Arkadij Naiditsch who outwitted Michael Adams of England.

The other game between Germans Daniel Fridman and Meier ended in a draw paving the way for the latter to open his account.

Caruana and Naidticsch have 1.5 points from one win and a draw and Anand and Fridman are breathing down their necks with two draws apiece.

With eight rounds still to come, Adams and Meier are at the bottom of the standings having half a point in their kitty.

Fabiano Caruana had suffered a major reversal at the Tata Steel Chess tournament and lost his place in the top-10 of world rankings when the event ended.

The Italian explained that there were many factors behind that fiasco and one of them was the absence of his coach Vladimir Chuchelov who is back to work with him.

After a first round drubbing of Meier, the Italian showed a lot of courage against Anand who had beaten him in the Tata tournament.

The Ruy Lopez by Anand led to slightly better prospects but the Italian came up with a new idea on move 20 to get a level position.