Anand, Topalov draw in game 10 for World Chess title

SOFIA — India's defending champion Viswanathan Anand and his Bulgarian challenger Veselin Topalov drew in the tenth round of their 12-game match for the world chess title on Friday.

The draw was agreed on the 60th move, allowing the two to keep even with a total result of 5-5 points. The next game is scheduled for Sunday.

Anand, known as the "Tiger from Madras", and Topalov have two wins each, while six games have ended in a draw.

The first player to score 6.5 points or more after the 12 games will be declared the new world champion.

If the scores are level after 12 games, the two will play four tie-break games of rapid chess, where each player has a total of 25 minutes to make his moves.

If the scores are still even after that, the new world champion will be decided in five five-minute blitz chess matches of two games each, ultimately followed by one sudden-death game.

The 40-year-old Anand first became world champion in 2007 and successfully defended his title in 2008.

Topalov, 35, won the right to challenge him by beating Gata Kamsky of the United States in the semi-final in February 2009.

The new world chess champion will win a prize of 1.2 million euros (1.58 million dollars), while the loser will take home 800,000 euros.