Sinquefield Cup: Viswanathan Anand draws with Magnus Carlsen, finishes ninth
St. Louis (USA): Viswanathan Anand ended his stint with a draw against World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and finished at ninth position in the Sinquefield Cup here.
For Anand, the below-par performance with two losses and seven draws in the nine-round tournament also resulted in a slip from the second spot in the Grand Chess tour standings, which will now conclude at the London Chess Classic in December.
Levon Aronian of Armenia expectedly won the tournament after an easy draw with Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. Tallying an impressive six points, Aronian won three and drew six games in the event. The lone decisive game of the final round saw Hikaru Nakamura of United States toppling Alexander Grischuk of Russia after a tense affair.
In the other two games, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France signed peace with Anish Giri of Holland, while last year's winner Fabiano Caruana also achieved the same result against Wesley So of United States.
Aronian ended a point clear of nearest rivals. It was a four-way tie for the second spot and Magnus Carlsen bagged the second place with his best tiebreak score. Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri finished third to fifth. Topalov and Grischuk shared the sixth spot on 4.5 points and these two ended a full point ahead of Caruana and Anand.
Wesley So ended last with three points. For the Grand Chess tour standings, Anand just got two points from here, a big slip compared to 10 that the Indian ace earned by finishing second in the Norway tournament earlier this year.
Topalov continued to top the 'tour' standings with 17 points in all but it's a very close race now with Nakamura on 16, Aronian on 15 and Carlsen on 14. Giri is fifth on 13 points, while Anand now stands sixth with 12 points in all.
In addition to the usual USD 300000 prize money in each of the three tour events, there is a 150000 prize fund at stake for the top three finishers of this tour.
Anand was up against the Berlin from Carlsen once again and both players spent some time on their clocks right from the word go. However, Anand did not get any desired advantage as Carlsen exchanged pieces to reach another opposite coloured Bishops endgame. Anand had an extra pawn in the end but it was not much use.
Result final round:
Viswanathan Anand (IND, 3.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 5)
Veselin Topalov (BUL, 4.5) drew with Levon Aronian (ARM, 6)
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 5) drew with Anish Giri (NED, 5)
Hikaru Nakamura (US, 5) beat Alexander Grischuk (RUS, 4.5)
Fabiano Caruana (US, 3.5) drew with Wesley So (US, 3)
Final Standings: 1. Aronian, 2-5: Giri, Carlsen, Lagrave, Nakamura; 6-7: Topalov, Grischuk, 8-9: Anand, Caruana, 10: So.
Grand Chess tour standings: 1. Topalov (17); 2. Nakamura (16); 3. Aronian (15); 4. Carlsen (14); 5. Giri (13); 6-7. Anand, Vachier-Lagrave (12 each); 8. Caruana (9); 9. Grischuk (8).
