Anand took the early lead in the 10-player tournament, which features rapid and blitz games. Pitted against local player Wojtaszek in the first round, Anand prevailed in 36 moves in a Ruy Lopez game and tamed So in a 30-game affair in the second round
Viswanathan Anand. File Pic/ AFP
Former world champion and Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand got off to a flying start in the Rapid section of the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland chess tournament on Thursday, registering wins in the first three rounds. Playing as a wildcard, the Indian chess maestro defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland in the first round, before getting the better of American Wesley So and ended the day one of the tournament with a win over Anton Korobov of Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENT
The veteran Indian star took the early lead in the 10-player tournament, which features rapid and blitz games. Pitted against local player Wojtaszek in the first round, Anand prevailed in 36 moves in a Ruy Lopez game and tamed So in a 30-game affair in the second round. Against Korobov in the third round, he won in 28 moves in a French Euwe variation game to wrap up a superb first day.
Hungary's Richard Rapport is second behind Anand with a win, a loss and a draw. He beat Kirill Shevchenko of Ukraine, drew with Lev Aronian and lost to Polish Jan-Kryrzstof Duda in the first, second and third rounds respectively.
The event, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour, boasts of a strong field that includes Fabiano Caruana of USA, Aronian, So and Rappor apart from Anand.
After nine rounds of Rapid, the players will take part in a Blitz event over two days with each player coming up against the nine others twice.
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
