Dortmund: Viswanathan Anand squandered a winning position and had to be content with a draw against Russian GM Evgeny Alekseev in the sixth and penultimate round of the Sparkassen meet here.

The draw ended Anand’s chances of winning the tournament outright. The best he can hope for now is a share of first place and, that too, if world champion Vladimir Kramnik loses his last-round game against Alekseev.

Kramnik surged ahead to a full-point lead by beating Germany’s Arkadij Naiditsch. Kramnik has 4.5 points from six games. Anand, Alekseev and Peter Leko are a point behind the leader. Irrespective of last round results, Kramnik is assured of at least shared first place.

Hungarian GM Leko registered his first victory in the tournament, at the expense of Israel’s Boris Gelfand. The game between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Norway’s Magnus Carlsen ended with neither doing much to disturb the equilibrium.

Anand played a rare variation against the Petroff defence and built up a dangerous attack with some creative play. He got into a winning position by move 20.

However, he blundered on the next move and allowed Alekseev to get back into the game with clever tactical moves. The Russian even obtained a superior position in the endgame, but Anand forced a draw with precise defence.

Kramnik gave another display of his technical prowess as he effortlessly outplayed Naiditsch.

The Russian once again used the Catalan opening, which has given him much success here. He forced an early exchange of queens and then began to use his nagging pressure to test Naiditsch’s defensive skills. (PTI)