Defending Champion Viswanathan Anand put up a spirited show to escape from big difficulties and drew in 43 moves against Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the first game of the semi-finals of the World Chess Championships in Moscow on Saturday.
GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine also put behind an inferior position and drew with GM Peter Svidler of Russia in the other semi-final.
Russian International Master Alexandra Kosteniuk continued her dream run and crushed Chinese Women Grandmaster Zhu Chen to take a one point lead in the final of the Women's World Championship being held simultaneously.
Playing with black pieces, Anand employed the French defence, in the first of the four-game semi-finals, and opted for the Rubenstein variation with which he had successfully drawn against GM Alexei Shirov of Spain in the reverse game of the quarter-finals on Friday.
Ivanchuk expected Anand's move, if his body language was any indication, and chose a set-up that is not regularly employed at the top level.
Anand got the opportunity to trade the queens early in the middlegame. Another Bishop pair was exchanged quickly by the Indian ace on the 20th move and the nature of the position did not change much. Bureau Report