Two of the best chess players of modern times, Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, played a highly exciting draw in the ninth round of the 66th Corus Grandmasters Chess tournament.

The 25-move draw, which had all the spectators and Grandmasters in attendance at the de Moriaan Sports Centre enthralled, however, ended with the two superstars deciding to call it a truce and split the point.

Despite the draw, Anand stretched his lead on top of the heap to a clear full point.

There are still four more rounds to go and Anand is in a very strong position to retain the title at 2004's first major classical event.

Wednesday is the tournament's third and last rest day and four more rounds remain. The final round will be played on January 26.

In the tenth round on Thursday, Anand will have black against Michael Adams. The Indian has a fairly good score and track record against the English player. He has so far won four games and drawn five in the tournament. His nearest rivals are Adams and Peter Leko, both of whom have 5.5 points each.

Adams, who was only half a point behind Anand, fell further back, as he lost to Dutch champion Loek Van Wely in a marathon 96-move game which started out in the Nimzo Indian.

Kramnik, who has already lost two games in the tournament, decided to play aggressively with white and Anand was game. It was Kramnik's chance of trying to narrow the gap between him and the Indian. After Anand went in for the Sicilian Sveshnikov, the position always looked ready to explode. However, both players played the highest quality of chess and maintained the balance and replied each other with perfect answers on each move.

Kramnik brought out a novelty on the eighth move with his 8.Bg5 and then on the 14th move sacrificed a pawn. That forced to Anand to think for sometime as the Indian moved his black bishop around looking for the right defence against Kramnik's dangerous queen and rook combination.

Kramnik looked like having an edge till Anand injected life on the queenside and offered a rook sacrifice on the 23rd move. Kramnik refused the offer but threatened a checkmate. However, Anand successfully looked around for a draw by perpetual checks with his knight and queen. With things not heading further, Kramnik and Anand deided to share the point before the tournament's last rest day on Wednesday evening.

One of the day's quickest draws was between the two Peters, Svidler and Leko, who played just 14 moves in a Sicilian, whle Chinese player, Zhang Zhong, continued his good showing holding the higher rated Veselin Topalov in 29 moves of another Sicilian Rossolimo.

The day's prize for the best game went to Alexey Shirov, who played spectacularly to beat Ivan Sokolov and win the spectators' appreciation and the 250 Euro prize.

Veteran Jan Timman delivered the surprise of the day beating the younger and higher rated, but struggling Evgeny Bareev.

Results of Round 9: Kramnik drew with Anand, Van Wely beat Adams, Svidler drew with Leko, Shirov beat Sokolov, Bologan beat Akopian, Zhang drew with Topalov, Bareev lost to Timman.

Standings after round 9: 1. Anand, 6.5 points; 2. Leko and Adams 5.5 each; 4. Kramnik, Van Wely, Topalov and Svidler 5.0 each; 8. Shirov 4.5; 9. Akopian and Bologan 4.0 each; 11. Zhang and Timman 3.5 each; 13. Sokolov and Bareev 3.0 each.

Pairings for Round 10: Topalov v Bareev, Adams v Anand, Lekov v Shirov, Akopian v Svidler, Van Wely v Bologan, Sokolov v Zhang, Timman v Kramnik

Kramnik vs Anand
Wijk Aan Zee, Round 9
Sicilian Sveshnikov

1.e4 c5, 2. Nf3 d6, 3. d4 cxd4, 4. Nxd4 Nf6, 5. Nc3 a6, 6. Be2 e5, 7. Nb3 Be7,. 8. Bg5 Be6, 9. Bxf6 Bxf6, 10. Qd3 Nc6, 11. 0-0-0 Be7, 12. Kb1 0-0, 13. Nd5 Bg5, 14. h4 Bxh4, 15. g3 Bf6, 16. Qf3 Bg5, 17. Qh5 h6, 18. f4 Bf6, 19. Nd2 Nd4, 20. Bc4 Rc8, 21. c3 Nb5, 22. f5 Bxd5, 23. Bxd5 Rxc3, 24. Qg6 Qb6, 25. Rxh6.

Result: Draw