Viswanathan Anand maintained his joint second position at the Croatia Grand Chess Tour at Zagreb. At the end of the eighth round of the rapid section, he had 4.5 points, the same as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and local lad Ivan Saric.
With just one round remaining, they were half-a-point behind Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, who kept the sole lead. All the 10 games played over the two rounds on Friday were drawn.
In the seventh round, Anand had his chances, with black pieces, against Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland in a rook-against-minor-pieces ending, but he missed them. He drew with Saric in the eighth round.
The results (after eight rounds):
1. Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus) 5 points; 2-4. Viswanathan Anand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) and Ivan Saric (Cro) 4.5.
5-6. Anish Giri (Ned) and Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol) 4.
7-9. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze), Alexander Grischuk (Rus) and Anton Korobov (Ukr) 3.5; 10. Jorden Van Foreest (Ned) 3.
