Five time world champion Anand draws with Anish Giri in Sinquefield Cup

St. Louis (USA): Five times world champion Viswanathan Anand played out his fourth draw on the trot, signing peace with Dutchman Anish Giri in the sixth round of the Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess tour. Anand recovered his tournament situation slightly as he came to joint eighth spot instead of joint ninth but the Indian ace still has a lot of ground to cover in the remaining three rounds of this 300000 USD Prize money tournament.

On a day when Hikaru Nakamura of United States played a remarkable attacking game against compatriot Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France also bounced back in reckoning for top honours disposing Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. The excitement did not end here as Russian Alexander Grischuk also scored a victory at the expense of local star Fabiano Caruana while the two overnight leaders – World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Levon Aronian of Armenia played out a draw. With just three rounds remaining, Carlsen and Aronian remained atop the tables with four points each in their kitty and Vachier-Lagrave, Giri and Nakamura are now joint third with 3.5 points apiece. Topalov and Grischuk share the sixth spot on three points each while Anand and Caruana are joint eight a full point behind. Wesley So is now at the bottom with just 1.5 points in his bag. For Anand, the black pieces have been troubling in this event as he lost the first two games with the slightly unfavourable colour in the game. However, against Giri, the Indian ace put up a spirited show in the Slav defense and did not look in any troubles at all. The Dutchman got a pleasant looking position out of the opening but timely exchanges by Anand kept him at bay and when Anand forced him in to an opposite coloured Bishops endgame the result of the game was never in doubt. Nakamura played a fine attacking game with black pieces drawing praise from on and all. The American was at his tactical best in spotting a flaw in Wesely So’ judgement as he went on a rampage on the king side with a series of sacrifices that left the audience as well as his opponent astonished. The game ended with checkmate after white king had come out on a stroll by force.

PTI