The second leg of the championship, which got underway after a week's break, was not expected to be very promising for Anand as he plays three black games out of five here and the trend continued as Vallejo Pons scored an easy draw.
For Anand, the soccer-like scoring system that gives three points for a win and one for a draw, only helped him to gather six points from as many games and a no-loss-no-win record is only becoming a deterrent for the world champion here.
Meanwhile, World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway scored a much-needed victory over leader Fabiano Caruana of Italy to set the records straight.
In the first leg at Sao Paulo in Brazil, Caruana, the leader, had got off to a flier defeating Carlsen in the opener and then registered two more wins to be in the lead.
In the other game of the day in the six-players double round-robin tournament, Sergey Karjakin of Russia drew with Levon Aronian of Armenia and the equation now suggests that the tournament is thrown wide open thanks to Carlsen's magnificent victory.
With four rounds still remaining, Caruana still stays in front on 11 points with Carlsen closely behind on nine points. MORE