Anand played out a quick 25-move draw in Rapid Play to maintain his lead in the section with 7 points and kept his fourth position overall after he and Karpov were content to draw the Blindfold game without much exertion.

Russian world number three Vladimir Kramnik was assured of the overall title by logging 13.5 points after a draw with Boris Gelfand of Belarus. He had shared the honours with the Russian-born Spaniard Alexy Shirov last year.After the tenth round, Anand is a full point clear of Kramnik in Rapid and unless he loses to Vassily Ivanchuk in the final round and Kramnik wins, Anand will emerge clear winner in the section.

With a round to go, Anand, despite gaining only 4 points in Blindfold section, had logged 11points to remain fourth behind Kramnik, Shirov and Vaselim Topalov (12.5).

Standings after 10th round

Rapid: Anand (Ind) 7; Kramnik (Rus) 6; Topalov (Bul) 5.5; Piket (Hol) 5; Ljubojevic (Yug), Karpov (Rus), Van Wely (Hol), Shirov (Esp) all 5 points; Gelfand (Blr), Lautier (Fra) both 4.5; Ivanchuk (Ukr) 4; Nikolic (Bih) 3.5.Blindfold: Shirov, Kramnik (both 7.5); Topalov (7); Karpov (5.5); Nikolic (5); Anand, Ivanchuk (both 4); Gelfand, Piket, Ljubojevic (all 3.5 points); Van Wely (3).

Overall Standings: Kramnik (13.5); Shirov, Topalov (12.5); Anand (11); Lautier, Karpov (both 10.5); Piket, Ljubojevic, Nikolic (all 8.5); Gelfand, Van Wely, Ivanchuk (8 each).