Sofia (Bulgaria): Gata Kamsky proved once again to be a tough nut to crack for Viswanathan Anand as he held the Indian Grandmaster to a draw and tightened his grip on the title in the Mtel Masters chess tournament in Sofia.
The eighth round peace result did not help Anand's cause to catch up with Kamsky as the Russia born American kept the Indian ace at a full point distance.
In other games of the day, Russia's Peter Svidler was also held to a draw by Etienne Bacrot of France while in the clash of World Champions, reigning world No. 1 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria beat former champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the last game of the day.
Kamsky's super cruise in the elite event continued with the draw against Anand.
With just two rounds remaining in the category-20 tournament, Kamsky took his tally to an enviable 5.5 points and a draw in the last two rounds should ensure a maiden victory on his comeback to competitive chess.
In the next two rounds, Kamsky, ranked lowest at the tournament, has to meet two tough customers in Topalov and Svidler but given his form, and the cushion of a full point lead, the American is the top favourite for the title.
Topalov joined Anand on the second spot on 4.5 points after a tense victory over Ponomariov who slipped to the last spot yet again with 2.5 points in his bag.
The fourth place is held by Svidler on four points while Bacrot currently stands fifth on three points.
Playing black against Kamsky, Anand played a solid game right through.
Already this year, Anand has lost two games against Kamsky (including one in this event) and this was reason enough for the Indian to take things easy especially with the slightly unfavourable colour of the game.
It was a Ruy Lopez exchange variation by Kamsky and Anand had little trouble in securing the balance after the queens got traded early in the opening.
Kamsky came out with a miniscule advantage in the resulting position, thanks to his slightly better placed pieces but Anand neutralised white's initiative with counter attack on the queen side.
With further exchanges, Anand entered a drawn rook and pawns endgame and the players agreed to split the point after 39 moves.
Topalov employed the closed Ruy Lopez which has been the flavour of this year's tournament.
Playing white, the local hero did everything right in the opening to come out with a subtle edge and improved his position further in the middle game to get an attack on the king side.
It was a trademark exchange sacrifice that surprised Ponomariov on the 25th move and the Ukrainian landed himself in major difficulties that erupted after Topalov came out with his spectacular 33rd move.
Ponomariov was forced to part with his queen thereafter and the technical part of the game was played to perfection by Topalov thereafter. The game lasted 65 moves.
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