Peter Leko (Hungary), Mathew Sadler (England) and Vadim Zviaginsev (Russia) are joint-second with four points each.

On a day of otherwise sober play -- the players obviously bracing for the final stage as also the matchings -- the Anand-Van Wely encounter was fairly balanced. In the only surprise of the day, former world junior champion Joel Lautier of France upset Vesselin Topalov to record his first win in the tournament. Topalov dropped out of the second placed pack with the loss. All the other games were drawn.

The Indian Grandmaster, with three wins and four draws so far, will enjoy the advantage of playing with white pieces against Korchnoi and Sadler but will play black in the other two games.

Results

Peter Leko (4) drew with J Piket (3.5); V Zviaginsev (4)drew with M Sadler (4); V Topalov (3.5) lost to J Lautier (2); L van Wely (3.5) drew with V Anand (5); M Adams (3.5) drew with V Kramnik (3); V Korchnoi (2.5) drew with P Svidler (3.5).

Humpy leads

CASTELLON (SPAIN): India's World under-10 champion Koneru Humpy jointly led the under-12 field after beating Georgia's Nana Dragnidzen in the fourth round of the World Youth chess championships here.

Among the boys, P Harikrishna, a former World under-10 champion, beat G Shurgulaia of Georgia with a King side attack in 45 moves and is joint-second with 3.5 points going into his next game against Andrej Volokitin of Ukraine.