Anand

Mexico City: Top seed Viswanathan Anand displayed excellent tactical acumen to beat Grandmaster Levon Aronian of Armenia in the second round of the World Chess Championship underway.

Anand, playing with black pieces, avenged his defeat against Aronian at the Morelia/Linares tournament and took his tally to 1.5 points to share the lead with arch-rival and defending champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

Kramnik came out triumphs against compatriot Alexander Morozevich while the other two games of the day were drawn.

Russians Peter Svidler and Alexander Grishchuk along with Israeli Boris Gelfand and Hungarian Peter Leko stand joint second with one point in their kitty. Following their second round loss, Aronian and Morozevich slipped to the bottom of the tables on a half point from two games.

After a rather cautious opening round, the excitement came calling in the World Championship as all the games were fought hard.

Anand caught Aronian off guard in the Moscow variation of the Slav Defence. Playing white, the Armenian was not his usual self. Even as Anand was tried for complications with a temporary piece sacrifice in the middle game, Aronian knew it was going to be difficult to salvage the onslaught.

Anand trapped white’s rook on the edge of the board and when Aronian was forced to part with it for a knight the writing was already on the wall for an Indian victory.

Playing precisely thereafter Anand won after 41 moves.