Viswanathan Anand’s prospects of a sixth Corus title received a setback as the Indian ace went down to top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the eighth round of the Corus chess tournament.
Viswanathan Anand’s prospects of a sixth Corus title received a setback as the Indian ace went down to top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the eighth round of the Corus chess tournament.
With his second loss in three days, Anand remained on four points from eight games as his chances of a tournament victory were almost blown away.
In the high-profile Group ‘A’ encounter, Topalov shot two points ahead of the Indian with just five rounds to come in the first super tournament of the year.
The Indian now has a daunting task ahead of him in the remaining games as he will have to score too heavily even to come in contention.
Topalov, meanwhile, shot into sole lead as overnight leader Teimour Radjabov of Ukraine finally found his nemesis in World Cup winner Levon Aronian of Armenia.
The Bulgarian nudged half-a-point ahead of Radjabov who remained on 5.5 points.
Sharing the third spot now on 5 points are Russians Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine and Aronian. Anand is now in joint seventh spot on 4 points along with David Navara of Czech Republic.
It was a double blow for the Indians as world’s youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi also suffered loss at the hands of International Master Manuel Bosboom of Holland.
Playing white, Parimarjan fell under acute time pressure and was slowly outdone.
International Master Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia continued with his demolition act and downed local IM and tail-ender Thomas Willemze in quick time.
Nepomniachtchi took his tally to an astounding 7.5 points out of a possible 8 and remained on 1.5 points ahead of his nearest rival Emanuel Berg of Sweden. Negi is in joint sixth spot here now on 4 points.
It was simply a disastrous outing for Anand as he apparently blundered in the early middle game itself against Topalov.
Playing the black side of a Queen’s Indian defense, the Indian faced an in-vogue variation and misjudged a tactical sequence of moves that gave Topalov two pieces for a rook with a huge positional advantage.
The Bulgarian converted this in quick time as this was the first game to end in the day in this section, lasting 35 moves in all. Aronian’s victory over Radjabov came with black pieces.
The Queen’s gambit declined by the Armenian ensured him an easy game and when Radjabov sacrificed a pawn for activity he was already treading on thin ice. The endgame was converted into a full point by Aronian with awesome ease.
In other decisive games of this round, Peter Svidler outwitted compatriot Alexander Motylev while Sergey Karjakin scored over Navara.
Monday was the second rest day in the event.
The results (8th round): Group ‘A’: Veselin Topalov (Bul, 6) beat Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 4); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2.5); Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 5.5) lost to Levon Aronian (Arm, 5); Alexander Motylev (Rus, 3) lost to Peter Svidler (Rus, 5); Loek van Wely (Ned, 3) drew with Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 3.5); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 5) beat David Navara (Cze, 4); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 1.5) drew with Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 3) —PTI
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