Longest unbeaten streak for Carlsen

WIJKAANZEE:VISWANATHAN Anand remained winless for the fourth round running, playing out a draw with China’s Yu Yangyi in the Tata Steel Chess where world champion Magnus Carlsen broke the record for being undefeated in maximum number of games.

Anand, who lost to Wesley So in the second round, shares the 11th spot alongside Nikita Vituigov of Russia while Yu Yangyi is 13th currently with one point in his kitty. With nine rounds still to come in the 14-player roundrobin event, Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus is at the bottom. Carlsen drew with local talent Jorden Van Foreest, registering his 111th game without losing, surpassing a 15-year-old record made by Russian-turned-dutch Sergei Tiviakov. American Wesley So shot in to sole lead ahead of the first rest day handing Iranian Alireza Firouzja his first defeat of the tournament. Wesley moved to three points out of a possible four and is now followed by compatriots Caruana Fabiano and Jeffery Xiong, Foreest, Firouzja and Vladislav Artemiev of Russia. Carlsen, after four draws in first four games, is joint seventh with Anish Giri, Daniil Dubov and Jan-krzysztof on two points.

For Anand, the Ragozin variation in the Queen’s gambit declined has been working fine for some time and in the fourth round too, the Indian ace opted for the same. It was a keen tussle in the opening but pieces changed hands at regular intervals. After the trading of queens, the players were left with rooks and knight only and even though Yangyi played on till move 32 the result was never in doubt.