Anand beats Adams to win London Classic on tiebreak

Viswanathan Anand won the 2014 London Chess Classic on Sunday after edging out Vladimir Kramnik and Anish Giri on tiebreak.

Anand’s first place was based on the number of wins with black — and since there was no other player to win a game with the black pieces, his win against Michael Adams on Sunday led to the title.

Giri and Kramnik drew their mutual game in the last round and so did Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura.

Earlier, the former world champion had settled for his fourth draw in the tournament — almost going out of contention at Olympia. But Nakamura enthused some life in the tournament defeating Michael Adams of England from what was perceived a drawn endgame.

Before the final day of the tournament and with just one round remaining — it was Giri and Kramnik who shared the lead on six points under the soccer-scoring system that gives three points for a win and one for a draw. At this point, Anand only had four points and was hoping for other results to go his way — which did.

Moves

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc 6dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. h3 Ke8 10. Nc3h5 11. Rd1Be7 12. g3b6 13. a4Bb7 14. a5 c5 15. Nd5 Bd8 16. Bg5 Rf8 17. c4 Bxd5 18. Rxd5 Bxg5 19. Nxg5 Ke7 20. Kg2 Nd4 21. Rd1 Rad8 22. Nf3 c6 23. Rxd8 Rxd8 24. Ng5 b5 25. cxb5 cxb5 26. Ne4 Nc6 27. Rxd8 Kxd8 28. e6 fxe6 29. Nxc5 Ke7 30. Nb3 Kd6 31. Kf3 Kd5 32. Kf4 Kc4 33. Nc1 Nxa5 34. Kg5 Nb3 35. Ne2 b4 36. Kxh5 a5