India's Viswanathan Anand suffered his second successive defeat, going down to underdog Grandmaster Viktor Bologan of Moldova in the third round of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess meeting at Dortmund, Germany.

The Indian Grandmaster, who finished at the bottom of the table in his previous outing at the event in 2001, looks out of form in this edition also, having also lost his second round tie against GM Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan on Saturday.

After this match, Anand, who only has a draw against GM Peter Leko in the first round to his credit, is placed at the bottom with 0.5 points while Bologan has emerged as the sole leader with 2.5 points.

In other third round ties, Leko shared points with Radjabov while world number two Vladimir Kramnik was held to a draw by GM Arkadi Naiditsch of Germany.

Kramnik is now half a point adrift of Bologan and ahead of third placed Leko and Radjabov. Naiditsch holds the fifth spot with one point.

Anand, who had defeated the Moldovian in their earlier meeting at the 2000 World Championship in New Delhi, started the game with a Caro Kann opening and was evenly placed till he committed a tactical error in the middle game to losing two pawns and eventually the tie in 41 moves.

A distracting move of the bishop by Bologan on the 27th move had the Indian in trouble slowing down his progress on the queenside. Anand then lost a pawn to a simple tactic on the 38th move before resigning on move 41.

"The opening was not a surprise, especially with Rustam Dautov as his (Anand's) second," Bologan said after the game. Dautov is a renowned expert of the variation and is currently working with Anand.

"Anand has tortured me a few times and this time I got one back," he said, adding the "Indian probably made too many queen sorties and my attack was faster on his king."

Prior to this game, Anand was leading the head to head between the two with three wins in the five clashes with no loss.

Meanwhile, Kramnik converted a boring position into a real fight against Naiditsch but the German was alert enough to salvage a draw after a marathon battle that lasted till the 89th move.

Earlier, Kramnik opened with the Queen pawn and employed the Capablanca variation against the Nimzo Indian defence. The Queens got traded quite early in this game and further exchanges led to a minor pieces endgame where there were apparently no chances.

However, Kramnik carried on with his remarkable plan and even won a pawn to his credit but had to content with half a point as Naiditsch managed to held on.

In other tie, Leko and Radjabov agreed to sign truce after just 28 moves even though the latter had a better central control.

Results (Round 3):

Viktor Bologan (2.5, Mda) bt Viswanathan Anand (0.5); Vladimir Kramnik (2, Rus) drew Arkadi Naiditsch (1, Ger); Teimour Radjabov (1.5, Aze) drew Peter Leko (1.5, Hun).

Third round moves:

Viktor Bologan v/s V Anand: 1.e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Ngf6 11. Bf4 e6 12. O-O-O Be7 13. Kb1 Qa5 14. Ne5 Rd8 15. Qe2 O-O 16. Ng6 Rfe8 17. Nxe7+ Rxe7 18. Rd3 Ree8 19. Rhd1 Qd5 20. Rg1 b5 21. Qd2 a5 22. Ne2 b4 23. g4 Ne4 24. Qe3 Ng5 25. Rc1 Nb6 26. b3 a4 27. Bc7 Qa5 28. f4 Nh7 29. g5 hxg5 30. fxg5 Rd7 31. Bxb6 Qxb6 32. Rg1 axb3 33. cxb3 Qa5 34. g6 fxg6 35. hxg6 Nf6 36. Rg5 Rd5 37. Re5 Ng4 38. Rxe6 Rf8 39. Qh3 Nh6 40. Rxc6 Rdf5 41. d5 black resigned

Vladimir Kramnik v/s Arkadi Naiditsch: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. Qxc3 b6 7. Bg5 Bb7 8. f3 h6 9. Bh4 d5 10. e3 Nbd7 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Bxd8 Nxc3 13. Bh4 Nd5 14. Bf2 c5 15. e4 Nf4 16. Be3 Ng6 17. Rd1 cxd4 18. Bxd4 Nde5 19. Nh3 Rac8 20 Bc3 Rfd8 21. Be2 Rxd1+ 22. Kxd1 Nc4 23 Bxc4 Rxc4 24. Ke2 f6 25. Rd1 Rc7 26. g3 Kf7 27. Nf2 Nf8 28. Ke3 Rd7 29. Nd3 Ba6 30. f4 h5 31. Rd2 Ke8 32. Bb4 Ng6 33. Ne1 Rxd2 34 Kxd2 h4 35. Nf3 hxg3 36. hxg3 Kd7 37. Ke3 Bb7 38. Nd2 a5 39. Bc3 Ne7 40. Bd4 Nc8 41. g4 Ba6 42. b3 Ke7 43. a4 b5 44. Bc5+ Kd7 45 axb5 Bxb5 46. Bf8 g6 47. Nf3 Ke8 48. Bc5 a4 49 Nd4 Bd7 50. bxa4 Bxa4 51. Nxe6 Bd7 52. Nc7+ Kf7 53. g5 fxg5 54. fxg5 Ne7 55. Bxe7 Kxe7 56. Nd5+ Kd6 57. Kd4 Be6 58. Nf4 Bf7 59. Nd3 Ke6 60. Nc5+ Kd6 61. Nb7+ Kc7 62. Nc5 Kd6 63. Nd3 Ke6 64. Kc5 Be8 65. Kc4 Bf7 66. Kd4 Kd6 67. Nf4 Be8 68. e5+ Kc6 69. Ke4 Kc5 70. Ne6+ Kc4 71. Nc7 Bc6+ 72. Kf4 Kc5 73. Na6+ Kb6 74. Nb4 Be8 75. Ke4 Bf7 76. Nd3 Kc6 77. Nf4 Kd7 78. Kd4 Ke7 79. Kc5 Kd7 80. Kd4 Ke7 81. Nd5+ Ke6 82. Ke4 Kd7 83. Nf4 Ke7 84. Kd4 Kd7 85. e6+ Bxe6 86. Ke5 Bf5 87. Kf6 Ke8 88. Nxg6 Bb1 89. Kg7 Bc2 draw agreed.

Teimour Radjabov v/s Peter Leko: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Qc2 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Be7 9. e4 O-O 10. Bd3 c5 11. O-O Qc8 12. Qe2 Ba6 13. Rd1 Bxd3 14. Rxd3 Nd7 15. e5 cxd4 16. cxd4 Qc4 17. Bg5 Bd8 18. Rad1 Qd5 19. h4 f6 20. exf6 Bxf6 21. Re3 h6 22. Bf4 Rae8 23. Bg3 Rf7 24. a4 Rfe7 25. Qc2 Qf5 26. Qb3 Qd5 27. Qc2 Qf5 28. Qc6 Qd5 draw agreed.