Anand Stems Losses in Draw

NEW YORK â€”  Challenger Viswanathan Anand held champion Garry Kasparov to a draw Friday in the 12th game of the Professional Chess Assn. World Championship.

With eight games remaining in the 20-game contest, Kasparov leads 6 1/2 points to 5 1/2.

Anand lost the last two games and defended for much of Friday’s battle.

“He had to stop the bleeding and he did that,� American Grandmaster Yaser Seirawan said.

Despite avoiding a hat trick of losses, Anand called his standing “not brilliant.�

The winner, the first player to score 10 1/2 points, will get $1 million. A win in a game scores one point; a draw nets a half. In the event of a tie, Kasparov retains his title. The 13th game was scheduled for Monday with Anand playing White.

When play began, the moves followed the Ruy Lopez opening. Anand drifted into a position where Kasparov maintained a slow but enduring advantage.

Anand traded off the queens and both sets of bishops to ease the pressure but Kasparov was able to penetrate a rook deep into his position on the 24th move.

With Anand facing possible defeat, Kasparov missed a trick on the 31st move, where Anand sacrificed a pawn to trade down and reach a drawn end game.

Here are the moves in Friday’s game:

Kasparov-Anand # 12: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 a4 Bb7 8 d3 d6 9 Nc3 b4 10 Nd5 Na5 11 Nxf6+ Qxf6 12 Ba2 h6 13 c3 bxc3 14 bxc3 0-0 15 Be3 Rad8 16 Rb1 Bc8 17 Qe2 Be6 18 h3 Bxa2 19 Qxa2 Bxe3 20 fxe3 Qe6 21 Qxe6 fxe6 22 Rb4 Rb8 23 Rfb1 Nc6 24 Rb7 Rbc8 25 Kf2 Rf7 26 Ke2 Rcf8 27 d4 g5 28 Kd3 Rg7 29 d5 exd5 30 exd5 g4 31 dxc6 e4+ 32 Kxe4 gxf3 33 gxf3 Re7+ 34 Kd4 Rxf3 35 e4 Rxh3 36 Rxc7 Rxc7 37 Rb8+ Kf7 38 Rb7 Re7 39 c7 Rxc7 40 Rxc7+ Ke6 41 Ra7 h5 42 Rxa6 Rh1 43 Ra8 h4, Drawn

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World Chess Championship

Thursday winner: Draw

Standings: Kasparov leads 6 1/2-5 1/2 in best-of-20 series

Next game: Monday