Chennai, Nov 10 (IANS): After a bookish opening and a brief attacking game, reigning World Champion Vishwanathan Anand from India and his Norwegian challenger World No.1 Magnus Carlsen agreed to a draw at the end of the 25th move in the second round of the World Chess Championship at the Hyatt Regency Hotel here Sunday.

"The position we got after the 12th move was sharp. I chose a solid line. He (Carlsen) went for queen exchange. After exchange of queens there was nothing much," Anand told the media after the game.

According to Anand the position was complicated and Carlsen would have studied that in more depth.

"I decided to be more prudent today," Anand added on the decision to draw the game.

Anand arrived at the playing arena ahead of Carlsen. Much to the expectation of the chess players across the world, Anand playing white opened with e4 -- pushing the king pawn two squares.

Carlsen responded by playing c6 - pushing one square his pawn in front of his white bishop for a Caro-Kann defence.

Both the players blitzed their first seven moves. In the ninth move Anand and Carlsen traded their white bishops. On the 14th move, Anand castled on the queen side while Carlsen responded by castling on his king's side.

At this juncture it was anticipated that the game would produce a decisive result as Anand will be focusing on attacking the black king from the king side. On his part, Carlsen would attack the champion's king from his queen side.

"Till the 12th move it was totally a treaded path for both the players. Yesterday both the players went on an uncharted path," R. Raghunathan, former National player told IANS.

A flurry of activity happened with the 15th move as Carlsen exchanged his two knights for his opponent's two knights that were occupying two advantageous squares on the white's king file.

Anand's pawn formation on both the sides was good as compared to Carlsen's. A couple of moves later, Carlsen went for exchange of queens which the champion obliged.

With most of the major pieces going off the board it was expected that the play would go for end game in which Carlsen is said to be an expert. In fact, Carlsen had started marching down his queen side pawns while Anand was playing his two rooks to attack the black king's defence.

"The game was headed for a draw after the exchange of knights and queen. Perhaps Anand was surprised with the Caro-Kann variation played by Carlsen," Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman told IANS.

But at the end of the 25th move, both the players agreed to split the point and went back home with one point each out of two games.

Monday is a rest day. The third match will be held Tuesday evening when Carlsen will open the game playing white.