Paris, Apr 25: World champion Viswan-athan Anand played out his third draw on the trot, signing peace with joint-leader Maxime Vachier-Lagraev of France in the fourth round of Alekhine memorial chess tournament in progress here.
It turned out to be an easy affair for Anand as he went for an age-old variation in the Semi Slav defense and drew without sweating much.
The day yet again provided just one decisive game and the beneficiary was Levon Aronian of Armenia who capitalized on a positional error by Russian Peter Svidler.
In other games of the day, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia split points with Ding Liren of China, Nikita Vituigov of Russia drew with Boris Gelfand of Israel while Frenchman Laurent Fressinet let English Michael Adams off the hook before taking the half point.
Aided by the victory, Aronian joined Adams, Vachier-Lagraev and Gelfand in lead on 2.5 points from four rounds and the quartet are now followed by Kramnik, Liren and Fressinet on two points apiece.
With five rounds still to go, Anand remains on joint eighth spot along with Vituigov while Svidler slipped to the bottom of the standings with one point in his bag.(PTI)
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