Sport

Anand beats Karjakin

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand scored his first blindfold victory in the 17th edition of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament with a 1.5-0.5 triumph over Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin in the sixth round at Nice, France, on Friday.

On a day when all rapid games ended in draws, Russia’s Alexander Morozevich was the only other blindfold winner after facing Dutchman Loek van Wely.

Anand is in the second spot at seven points, half a point behind Levon Aronian.

In blindfold, Anand is joint sixth and in rapid, he remains in the second position.

Anand emerged comfortable winner in the blindfold game in 29 moves of Sicilian Defence but not before misreading Karjakin’s seventh move and again looking unsure of the position on the 23rd move.

Still, Anand came out stronger after forcing Karjakin to give up his queen for a rook and knight. The youngster resigned when facing an inevitable checkmate.

In the rapid encounter, Anand held a slight edge in the Ruy Lopez game but Karjakin had some compensation in the form of the bishop pair.

Later, in an equal position, the draw was agreed after 42 moves.

The results (sixth round):

Blindfold: Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 2.5) lost to Viswananthan Anand (3); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 2); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 4) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 3.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 3.5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 3); Loek van Wely (Ned, 2.5) lost to Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 4); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3.5).

Rapid: Anand (4) drew with Karjakin (3); Mamedyarov (3) drew with Aronian (4.5); Topalov (3) drew with Carlsen (2.5); Leko (3.5) drew with Ivanchuk (3); Morozevich (1.5) drew with Wely (2); Kramnik (3) drew with Gelfand (3).

Combined standings: 1. Aronian (7.5), 2. Anand (7), 3-7. Topalov, Leko, Kramnik, Ivanchuk and Carlsen (6.5 each), 8-9. Morozevich, Karjakin (5.5 each), 10. Mamedyarov (5), 11-12. Gelfand and Leko (4.5 each).

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