A struggling Viswanathan Anand opened his account following a 40-move draw against defending champion Fabiano Caruana in the third round of the Zurich Chess Challenge in Zurich on Saturday.
Playing black, Anand held a slight advantage even as Caruana was required to hurry to order to meet the stipulation of making 40 moves in two hours. But the former World champion chose to play it safe.
Anand, who had established a ‘passed’ pawn on the kingside, was looking to break Caruana’s defence around white, vulnerable un-castled king. But soon the players agreed to draw the game following repetition of moves. At the adjacent table, an upbeat Hikaru Nakamura was close to landing a rare knockout punch on Magnus Carlsen but faltered on the 37th and 39th moves.
Thereafter, Nakamura blundered again with his queen-move on the 40th turn. This dramatically enhanced Carlsen’s chances of continuing his domination of Nakamura.
The results (third round): Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 1.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (0.5); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 1.5) v Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1.5) in progress; Levon Aronian (Arm, 2) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1); (second round): Gelfand drew with Caruana.