World champion Viswanathan Anand survives a scare next to young Anish Giri of Holland before salvage a draw in the 12th and last but one round of the 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament.
In Group 'A', the Nepalese-Russian Giri came close to defeat the world champion with black pieces but Anand somehow manage to pose sufficient problems in his opponent path, which is characteristic when the Indian ace is defending.
With just one round outstanding in the category-20 super event, Nakamura tops the leader board on 8.5 points while Anand is close at the back on eight points.
In other matches, Magnus Carlsen beat Wang Hao of China to split the third place with Levon Aronian of Armenia on 7.5 points while Kramnik slipped to fifth mark with seven points.
In the final round, Anand will have black next to Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia while Nakamura will play with the same colour next to Wang Hao.
Giri go for a Semi Slav next to Anand that left the Indian in real troubles. The gap saw young Giri, 16, coming up with a Novelty early in the game and Anand with his casual play, got an optical benefit with routine manoeuvres.
It was clear from the moves in the middle game that Giri understand what he was up to. Anand ran a little short of time moderately and had to find some really fine defence after the first time control.
"I wasn't happy with my play. I just drift, making a move according to one plan and then one more in line with a dissimilar one. I had the emotion I was losing, though there was never anything real," Anand told reporters after the 50-move draw.
Against Kramnik, Nakamura determined against taking any risk and drew quickly that almost certainly put a bit of pressure on Anand to catch up.
The American sounded confident about the last round against Wang Hao.