Former world champion Viswanathan Anand outclassed Frenchman Andrei Istratescu to jump to sole lead at the halfway stage of the preliminaries of the London Chess Classic. On what turned out to be another fine day with black, Anand came up with some brilliant planning and romped home without much ado. Later, he defeated Luke McShane of England for the second time. With this win, Anand has sealed a place in the knockout stage of the Classic this year, reserved for the top two Two more games are still to be played and Anand leads group "A" with ten points while Michael Adams of England has eight points. In this championship, soccer-like scoring system is being followed that gives three points for a win and one for a draw.