Second seed Viswanathan Anand punished Russia’s Peter Svidler in the third round of the Tal memorial chess tournament in Moscow on Saturday.

After two days of draws, three decisive results lit up the proceedings with Armenia’s Levon Aronian and Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik joining Anand in the lead with two points.

Anand, sitting behind white pieces after two successive games with black, had no difficulty in gaining an early advantage once Svidler chose the Grunfeld Defence, something the Indian adopted in the first

two games. Anand temporarily sacrificed a kingside pawn to expose Svidler’s castled king.

The Russian committed the mistake of attempting to keep the pawn which he should have returned to prevent an immediate attack. Soon thereafter Anand’s rook got into play and compounded Svider’s

troubles. The Russian lost a knight and resigned in 32 moves.

Aronian scored over Hungary’s Peter Leko in 43 moves in Anti Meran Gambit. Kramnik, playing black, twice allowed compatriot Alexander Morozevich to escape but finished their Nimzo Indian game in style in

45 moves.

Top seed Norway’s Magnus Carlsen settled for a 27-move draw after playing with black pieces against Israel’s Boris Gelfand. In the day’s longest game, Vassily Ivanchuk and his Ukranian teammate Ruslan

Ponomariov battled for 69 moves before signing peace.

In the fourth round, Anand plays black against Ponomariov, the 2002 World champion.

The results (third round):

Viswanathan Anand (2) bt Peter Svidler (Rus, 1); Levon Aronian (Arm,2) bt Peter Leko (Hun, 1); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 1) lost to Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 1.5) drew with Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 1.5); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5).