Anand slips to second spot

Russian in which the former came out with flying colours while Kramnik capitalised on superior opening preparation once again to beat young Dutch Anish Giri.

World Champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw as black against World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the seventh round of the A group of 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament here. Anand took his tally to five points out of a possible seven while Hikaru Nakamura of United States edged past him past the half way stage with a finely crafted victory over Jan Smeets of Holland.

With six rounds still to come,Nakamura is well in front on 5.5 points,a half point clear of Anand and a full point ahead of Levon Aronian of Armenia and Vladmirik Kramnik of Russia who both ended on the winning side in this round.

Aronian had a tough game against Alexander Grischuk of Russian in which the former came out with flying colours while Kramnik capitalised on superior opening preparation once again to beat young Dutch Anish Giri.

Story continues below this ad

Playing the Sicilian Najdorf that gave him a fine victory against Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine earlier in the tournament,Anand faced a rather harmless setup by Carlsen. The Norwegian went for fianchetto of the Kings Bishop generally regarded as a positional manoeuvre aimed at causing the damage on the queen side.

Anand however was well armed as the pace of his moves showed and it was Carlsen in fact who took more time despite coming up with the opening surprise. Anand parted with his Bishop for a Knight on the 11th move and seized the center with two pawns getting adequate play. Carlsen could not find anything better than trading the queens and reaching a level endgames a few moves later. The game lasted just 18 moves.

Tags:
World Champion Viswanathan Anand

Bengaluru family feared dead in Kurnool bus fire

Cities3 hr ago

A family of four from Andhra Pradesh, residing in Bengaluru, are suspected to be among the 20 people reported dead in a fire that gutted a Hyderabad-Bengaluru bus near Kurnool in the early hours of Friday.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS