The world's eight best chess players all tied on Thursday their first round games in the World Chess Championship Mexico 2007 in less than 30 moves each.
World champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia tied his first game against countryman Peter Svidler in 23 moves; Alexander Morozevich of Russia drew Armenian Levon Aronian in 25 moves.
The highest-rated player Anand Vishwanathan of India tied Israeli Boris Gelfand in 22 moves, while Alexander Grishuk of Russia shared the point with Hungarian Peter Leko 28 moves, the longest first-round game.
The Kramnik-Svidler game was a queen's-gambit opening, Morozevich-Aronian was an Indo-Benoni variation, Anand-Gelfand was a Petrov defense opening, and Grischuk-Leko was a Ruy Lopez opening.
The second-round games will be played Friday at 14:00 local hours featuring Svidler-Leko, Gelfand-Grischuk, Aronian-Anand and Kramnik-Morozevich. The player who wins gets one point, the loser gets zero and each player gets half a point if they draw.
The championship was opened at a centric hotel in Mexico City's Historic Center with the closing ceremony slated for September 30.
The championship offers a total prize money of one million 300 thousand U.S. dollars, 300,000 dollars for the champion and a minimum of 60,000 dollars for last placer.
Source: Xinhua
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