Victory eluded world champion Viswanathan Anand for the second successive day as he played out a draw with Russian Nikita Vituigov in the second round of the Alekhine Memorial Chess tournament here at the Louvre.

After a shocking loss at the hands of English Michael Adams, Anand recovered a bit in keeping the position together as black against Vituigov who pressed for quite sometime before liquidating the position.

Adams, meanwhile, continued with his winning ways and downed Peter Svidler of Russia to emerge as the sole leader in the super tournament with his back to back wins.

China’s Ding Liren’s party was spoilt by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France who came up with a scintillating effort. Armenian Levon Aronian, who had lost to Liren in the opener, showed steely nerves to overcome Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

The other game of the day between Laurent Fressinet of France and Boris Gelfand ended in a draw.

Liren, Kramnik, Aronian, Gelfand and Fressinet share the third spot with one point each while Anand stands at joint eighth spot along with Svidler and Vituigov.

The Nimzo Indian defense by Anand did not equalise quickly against Vituigov as the Russian pressed for initiative early in the middle game.

Anand faced the heat but was quite up to the task in finding the defense which involved exchanging of all minor pieces that led to a rooks and queens endgame.