Anand held as Carlsen exits
Jan. 18: World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by local hopeful Erwin L’Ami in the third round of the ‘A’ group of 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament here.
With his second successive draw, Anand took his tally to two points out of a possible three and will now play with white against Wang Hao of China ahead of the first rest in the category-20 round robin tournament between 14 players.
In the shocker of the day, World No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway blundered and went down to talented Anish Giri of Holland in a mere 22 moves. The victory with black pieces was Anish’s best till date and this was the first time that the 16-year old of Nepalese origin scalped a 2800+ rated player.
Anand, who played the black side of a Bogo Indian defence, was in a spot of bother in the middle game as L’Ami had better placed pieces ready to cause the damage on the king side. It took a lot of effort for the Indian to find the counter-play and at the same time kept L’Ami’s pieces in check.
The game took a decisive turn when L’Ami broke the center and Anand countered it with a timely pawn sacrifice ensuring exchanges that led to a level queen and minor piece endgame. The peace was signed on move 34.
Selected results: Round 3:
Group ‘A’: Erwin l’Ami (Ned, 1) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 1.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 1.5) lost to Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 1.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1) lost to Anish Giri (Ned, 2); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 1.5) playing Alexei Shirov (Esp, 0.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 1.5) drew with Wang Hao (Chn, 0.5).0
Group ‘B’: Friso Nijboer (Ned, 1.5) drew with Laurent Fressinet (Fra, 1.5); Luke McShane (Eng, 2) playing Vladislav Tkachiev (Fra, 1); Radek Wojtaszek (Pol, 1.5) beat Li Chao (Chn, 0.5); Le Quang Liem (Vie, 1) playing Wouter Spoelman (Ned, 0.5); Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 2) drew with David Navara (Cze, 2).
Group ‘C’: Kateryna Lahno (Ukr, 2.5) beat Roeland Pruijssers (Ned, 1); Dariusz Swiercz (Pol, 1) Tania Sachdev (Ind, 1); Illya Nyzhnyk (Ukr, 2) drew with Mark Bluvshtein (Can, 2); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 1) beat J W de Jong (Ned, 0.5); Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 1.5) Murtas Kazhgaleyev Kaz, 1).
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