Viswanthan Anand let reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen off the hook and settled for a draw in the first round of the second Vugar Gashimov Memorial chess tournament, here on Friday.

Capitalising on an unforced error by Carlsen, five-time world champion Anand enjoyed a pawn plus position for a long time, but the Norwegian simply hung on to salvage an important half point in the strongest super tournament of this year. The biggest result was recorded by Wesley So of United States who accounted for Anish Giri of Holland to go into the early lead along with Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Kramnik accounted for ninth seed Michael Adams of England in this 10-player round-robin tournament.

The results: First round: V. Anand (Ind) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita); Wesley So (USA) bt Anish Giri (Ned); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) bt Michael Adams (Eng); Rauf Mamedov (Aze) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra).