Hyderabad: Defending champion Vishwanathan Anand agreed for a quick draw against Uzbekistan's Rustam Kasimdzhaanov in the first round of the finals of the second World Chess Cup on Saturday.

"There is no point in continuing when the position leads to nowhere," the players said after the match as they called truce in the 15th move itself with material and space occupancy of both players being nearly equal.

The two would be the playing the final round on Sunday with Anand having the advantage of being with white pieces. In case of a draw, the game goes into a tie- break where they would play two rounds of rapid games followed by two blitz rounds and in case of no result, the game slips into sudden death.

In Saturday's game, Anand playing black in the Caro Kann line, started with caution while the young Uzbek was on equal terms and each had a strong bishop and a knight placed at the most authoritative squares which prompted them for the draw.

"It was an unusual line of opening, but I did anticipate that Rustam would be adopting this and was prepared for it. He did not surprise me," said Anand, who moved into the final after beating Russian Grand Master Alexey Dreev in the five- game semi-final on Friday.

Asked if the tough semi-final had anything to do with Saturday's draw, Anand said, "The game was still very raw and my knight and his bishop were very strongly placed though no material was involved. We though there was no point in continuing and agreed to split the point.

Rustam, who overcame Alexander Belyavski of Slovenia in the other semi-final, said, "I offered the draw as the position was equal and would continue to be even after some more moves."

Anand, who played the game with black pieces, said he was trying hard for the win. "I really want to win while playing black pieces but had no chance and the game transposes into a situation where we agree for a draw."

Speaking on his semi-final games, he said he did drew with Dreev in the tie breaker after playing 88 moves and the decision to split a point varies from situation to situation.

"We can have interesting draws at times and this is one." After the regular opening moves, where both the players tried to gain control over the central squares and shared the space equally the game shifted to equal exchanges to gain positional superiority.

Judicious placements and exchanges had left the material equal on the board with Anand having a strong bishop and Rustam hold a powerful knight and the pawn structure being protected on one hand and giving enough room for movement of major pieces.

The truce call came from the Uzbek immediately after both sides castled.

PTI