Monaco: World Champion Viswanathan Anand
jumped to the joint second spot after signing peace with
Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the fifth round of the 20th and
final edition of Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament
here.
Anand, who had three victories in the first four rounds
was stopped by a determined Karjakin and though the Indian ace
had a promising position in the rapid game of the day, the
Russian fought hard.
It is normally not the case but the two drawn games
helped Anand to improve his tournament position even as Levon
Aronian of Armenia broke away from the field with a handsome
2-0 victory over Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan.
With six rounds or 12 games still to come in the unique
tournament with a 2,27,000 Euros prize pool, Aronian took his
tally to an excellent eight points out of a possible 10 while
Anand is now sole second on 6.5 points in the combined
standings.
Overnight joint leader Magnus Carlsen of Norway fell
behind to the third spot following a 0-2 drubbing at the hands
of Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Russian Grischuk is now
sole fourth with 5.5 points.
Aronian`s triumph also helped him to gain sole lead both
in the blindfold and rapid section on four points each while
Anand is joint second in blindfold along with Boris Gelfand of
Israel and Grischuk and shares the same spot in the rapid
along with Carlsen.
Formerly from Ukraine, Karjakin now plays for Russia.
Having started with a 0-2 loss in the opener Karjakin has
fought his way back and in the blindfold game against Anand he
just made a quick draw with black pieces.
It was a brief theoretical discussion that ended in a
draw after a mere 23 moves. Anand faced a new idea in the
Nimzo Indian on move 12. White won a pawn, but despite the
activity he could not avoid giving it back as in the end the
isolated c-pawn was bound to fall.
PTI
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