Anand holds Nakamura, Carlsen leads

Excitement was at a premium as all five boards ended in draws in the second round of the Norway chess tournament here on Tuesday.

Viswanathan Anand, playing black, played out a 39-move draw with Hikaru Nakamura in what was the last game to finish.

Magnus Carlsen, the only first-round winner, maintained his half-point lead after a 41-move draw with Sergey Karjakin.

The results: (second round): Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 1) drew with Viswanathan Anand (1); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 1) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5); Ding Liren (Chn, 1) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1); Levon Aronian (Arm, 1) drew with Wesley So (USA, 1); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 0.5) drew with Shakhariyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 1).

Third round pairings: Anand-Liren; Carlsen-Aronian; Lagrave-Caruana; Mamedyarov-Karjakin; So-Nakamura.