When Viswanathan Anand and Judit Polgar, two of the most attacking chess players in the world, clash, one can be sure of some fireworks - as happened in the fourth round of the Mtel Masters Chess Tournament here Sunday.

Playing what is surely their favourite Sicilian, at least when they meet each other, they kept the audience and the experts enthralled before their clash ended in a dramatic draw with just the two kings left on the board.

In the other games, Michael Adams and Ruslan Ponomariov drew in 27 moves, while home favourite Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik, from whom he has taken over World No. 2 position - Anand being the No. 1 after Kasparov's retirement - also drew their game by repetition after 56 moves.

So far, 10 of the 12 games have ended in draws with Kramnik and Adams securing one win each.

"The full point was not there for the lack of trying. I did my best," said Anand of the fourth round game.

"It was an interesting game and in the end, it is not often you have a King v King situation. It is a rare situation, but I have seen it. In fact I have been in one of them, though I cannot remember when," he added with his usual dash of humour.

Like more than two-thirds of their clashes, it was once again a Sicilian in the Taimanov, though they have played a lot in Najdorf in the past.

"Today I didn't want to bore you guys with another Petroff," joked Anand when asked about it. On a more serious note, he said: "I tried, even though I felt she had a draw. It was very interesting."

They kept the crowd guessing till the very end, and then, right at the end, the NIIT Brand Ambassador Anand had a rook and bishop and one pawn to his rivals' rook and two pawns, one of them on the seventh rank poised for queening. Suddenly the moves which were so slow till then, started coming at a rapid pace.

The duo simply exchanged all the pieces and were left with just the king each on the board for an obvious draw. Abiding by the rules of he tournament, they had neither offered a draw, nor proposed it, but had simply played it. Then they broke into a knowing smile.

Even though the home favourite Veselin Topalov was up against Vladimir Kramnik, whom he has overtaken as the world's second highest rated player after Anand, the crowd was totally absorbed by the Polgar-Anand clash.

Polgar and Anand, black, started the game in the quest for their first win in the tournament after three draws each.

Polgar and Anand have engaged in many a Sicilian battle with the most notable one being in Chess Classic of Mainz, where six of their first eight games in the regulation rapid match were in the Sicilian and they won four each!

Overall, almost two-thirds of their clashes have been in the Sicilian and seven of Polgar's eight wins have been in the Sicilian, while 13 of Anand's 20 wins have come in it.

Anand looked good for most part of the game, his 17th move of Qg5 looked particularly worrisome for Polgar, who went into deep thought for almost half an hour. It had her queen trapped deep in. She took a lot of time then, but still completed her 40 moves with about a minute to spare from her two hours.

Adams changed the move order right on the second move to limit Ponomariov's options as the latter tried to move into the Caro-Kann.

"I wanted to limit his options in the opening," said Adams after the game. And so he did in just 27 moves for the shortest game of the tournament. In fact Ponomariov spoke to Adams even though this is not allowed. "It was clear, so I spoke," he said. "In another place I may have got fined 1,000 Euros," he added with a smile.

Pairings for fifth round: Ponomariov-Topalov, Kramnik-Polgar; Anand-Adams.

Results of fourth round: Ponomariov drew with Adams; Polgar drew with Anand; Topalov drew with Kramnik

Points after four rounds: 1. Adams 2.5 points; 2. Anand, Polgar, Kramnik and Topalov (2 points); 6. Ponomariov 1.5 point

Anand's fourth round game

Polgar vs Anand

1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 d5 8. O-O Nf6 9. Re1 Be7 10. e5 Nd7 11. Qg4 g6 12. Bh6 Rb8 13. Qh3 Rb4 14. Bg7 Rg8 15. Qxh7 Rxg7 16. Qxg7 Bf8 17. Qg8 Qg5 18. g3 Nxe5 19. f4 Nf3+ 20. Kf2 Qh5 21. Bxg6 fxg6 22. Rxe6+ Bxe6 23. Qxe6+ Be7 24. Qxc6+ Kf8 25. Qa8+ Kg7 26. Qxd5 Nxh2 27. Qxh5 gxh5 28. Rh1 Ng4+ 29. Kf3 Nf6 30. b3 Rb6 31. Ne4 Nxe4 32. Kxe4 Kg6 33. c4 Re6+ 34. Kf3 Rd6 35. Re1 Rd3+ 36. Kg2 Bf6 37. Re6 a5 38. Ra6 Kf5 39. c5 Bd4 40. Rd6 Ke4 41. c6 Rc3 42. Kh3 Bf2 43. Rg6 Bb6 44. Kh4 Rc5 45. Rd6 Bc7 46. Rd7 Rxc6 47. Kxh5 Bd6 48. Kg5 Ba3 49. Ra7 Rc5+ 50. Kg6 Bb4 51. Ra6 Rc3 52. Re6+ Kf3 53. f5 Rc2 54. f6 Rxa2 55. f7 Kxg3 56. Kg7 Rf2 57. Rg6+ Kh3 58. Rh6+ Kg2 59. Rh5 Rf3 60. Rg5 Kf2 61. Kg8 Rg3 62. Rxg3 Kxg3 63. f8=Q Bxf8 64. Kxf8 Kf4 65. Ke7 Ke5 66. Kd7 Kd5 67. Kc7 Kb5 68. Kb7 Kb4 69. Ka6 a4 70. bxa4 Kxa4 71. Draw

--Indo-Asian News Service