BIEL, July 23: Viswanathan Anand, Boris Gelfand and Anatoly Karpov continued to share the lead as all three games in the second round of the Credit Suisse Grandmaster Chess Tournament here ended in draws.

Playing with white pieces, GM Vadim Milov of Switzerland got a slight edge in the opening against top seed Viswanathan Anand of India, who employed the Nimzo Indian Defence. Though pawn structure was quite suitable for a king side attack by white, Milov opted to dissolve the centre, getting double bishops in the process, and offered a draw to Anand, who accepted gladly.

FIDE World Champion Karpov, playing with black pieces against Gelfand, repeated a variation in the English Opening. But Gelfand varied early with a new 12th move and the players soon agreed to a draw by repeating moves.

The only real fight of the day took place between GM Joel Lautier of France and IM Yannick Pelletier of Switzerland. Lautier played the sharp Ritcher-Rauzer variation against Pelletier's classical Sicilian defence, but allowed black to equalise easily. After an early queen exchange, white had better development but also a weak e4 pawn. To cover this, Lautier had to obstruct the only open file available the d-file with his bishop. Draw was agreed after reaching a knight versus bishop ending in 41 moves.

Standings after two rounds: Viswanathan Anand (Ind), Anatoly Karpov (Rus) and Boris Gelfend (Belarus) 1.5 points each; J.Lautier (Fra), V.Milov (Swz) and Y.Pelletier (Swz) 0.5 points each.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.