ChessMexico 2007, Round 1 : All games were drawn thursday, the first round, but it does not mean that you'll find drawish final positions. It seems to me that the final positions still held a lot of fight in them, but somehow the players wanted to get points on the board. As if, there was this mad rush not to end up with a zero. The final positions appear in suspended animation. Let's hope that these guys start grappling and clawing for a win very soon, like the next round. I believe the first to draw was Anand vs. Gelfand. That was a 22-mover affair.

Above, we have the final position of Morosevich - Aronian. This game was drawn in 25 moves. Things could have gone 26. Ra8 Ra8 27. Kg2 Ra4 28. Be7 b5 29. Rd1 Bh8 30. Bd6 g5 with a very slight advantage for white.

Here, we have Kramnik - Svidler drawn in 23 moves. A possible continuation is 23... cd4 24. Bd3 Nd5 25. Nd4 Bd3 26. Qd3 Qb4 27. Nhf3 and somewhat even game. There is an interesting line that goes 23...Qe8 24. Rd6 Bb5 25. Qe4 Nc4 26. Qh7+ Kf8 27. Ng4 a4 28. Nh6! Be5 29. Rdd1 Ke7 with a very good game for white.