However, the Indian saw his lead being reduced to half-a-point as Magnus Carlsen narrowed the gap with a victory over Alexei Shirov, pushing Aronian to the third position.

Levon Aronian tried to wrest the lead from Anand by sacrificing a pawn in the opening against the Queens Indian defence. The position became very sharp as Aronian came up with some incisive play and built up a dangerous initiative.

Anand used clever tactics to prevent his opponent from gaining the upper hand. He managed to neutralise Aronian’s initiative by giving back the pawn and forcing a position with opposite coloured bishops. The players decided to split the point on the 27th move in a balanced position.

Norwegian teenager Magnus Carlsen moved to sole second place with a rather lucky victory over Spanish Grandmaster Alexei Shirov.  Carlsen played magnificently with the White pieces in the Spanish opening and gained a clear advantage in the early middle-game. He decided to go for the win of a pawn on the 27th move, which allowed Shirov to activate his pieces.

Carlsen continued to hold the upper hand, but Shirov defended superbly and kept the balance for a long time in the marathon seven hour battle.

The game came to an abrupt end on the 80th move as Shirov blundered away a rook in time trouble and his valiant defence turned out to have been in vain.

Topalov obtained a slightly advantageous position against Teimour Rajdabov with the Spanish opening, but his advantage proved insufficient to win the game.

Topalov kept on testing Radjabov’s defensive skill in the major piece ending without making any progress against his opponent’s stubborn defence. Having exhausted all the potential in the position, Topalov conceded a draw in the pawn ending.

Results (IX Round):
Levon Aronian (Arm, 5) drew Vishwanathan Anand (Ind, 6); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5.5) bt Alexei Shirov (Esp, 4); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 4.5) drew Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 4); Peter Leko (Hun, 3) lt to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 4).