Former world champ Viswanathan Anand continued to hunt for an elusive victory but finished with a draw by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the fifth round of Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess tour here
St Louis (USA): Former world champ Viswanathan Anand (right) continued to hunt for an elusive victory but finished with a draw by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the fifth round of Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess tour here.
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Getting his third draw besides two losses, Anand took his tally to 1.5 points out of a possible five and with just four rounds to come, the Indian needs some big wins to recover the lost ground.
World champion Magnus Carlsen meanwhile, continued downed USA’s Wesley So to join Levon Aronian of Armenia in lead on 3.5 points. The other overnight leader Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria suffered his first loss here as last year’s winner and local favourite Fabiano Caruana struck form.
While Aronian was held to a draw by Alexander Grischuk of Russia, American Hikaru Nakamura’s attempt beat Dutch Anish Giri also ended in a peace treaty.
With Carlsen now in front with Aronian, Topalov and Giri share the third spot on three points each. Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave are next in the standings half a point behind, while Caruana and Grischuk share seventh place on two points each. Anand and Wesley now occupy the bottom of the table with 1.5 points each.