Monte Carlo: World Cup champion Viswanathan Anand scored a 1.5-0.5 victory over Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine to regain the joint second spot after the fourth round of the 12th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament.

Hungarian Grand Master Peter Leko maintained his sole lead after drawing 1-1 against top seed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

Leko has 5.5 points and is a half point adrift of nearest rivals Anand, Kramnik, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Alexander Morozevich of Russia.

Anand's victory came in the Rapid game after he drew the Blindfold played earlier in the day. The full point took Anand to joint lead in the Rapid section along with Morozevich and his compatriot Evgeny Bareev, all having three points from four games.

Kramnik maintained his stronghold in the Blindfold and leads with 3.5 points. Interestingly, overall leader Leko is in shared second spot in this section and fourth in Rapid.

Anand was in joint second position after the second round but slipped to one rank after drawing 1-1 with Morozevich in the third.

PTI