Anand wins at home after 16 years
KOLKATA: Viswanathan Anand showed when it comes to the crunch, the old dog can still bite. Nearing 49, the Madras Tiger roared into action on the final day of the Tata Steel Chess India 2018 on Wednesday, winning his first tournament on Indian soil in 16 years following a dramatic playoff.
The Indian maestro, who had finished seventh in the rapid section, defeated American Hikaru Nakamura 1.5-0.5 in the twogame playoff to claim the blitz title, showing the chess world is making a big mistake by writing him off. Anand, who won the World Rapid Championship in Riyadh in 2016 won a title in a tournament that had four of the world’s top 10 ranked players.
His last title at home was at the 2002 World Cup in Hyderabad.
Anand was brilliant in the first playoff as he defeated Nakamura, 30, to leave the world’s second highest ranked player in blitz shaking his head. He then thwarted Nakamura in the second playoff game, playing precise moves to steer the game to a draw. In the nine games played on Wednesday, Anand won six and drew three. Nakamura won and drew four each, losing one.
Going into the 17th and penultimate round, Anand shared top spot with Nakamura, who won in rapid, and Levon Aronian.
In such a crucial game, Anand beat P Harikrishna. He would not have expected to face the Breyer Variation in Ruy Lopez, a closed system in which the player with black tries to develop his knights to force things. Harikrishna threw the challenge and Anand turned the tables on him.
With Nakamura outplaying Vidit Gujrathi, they shared the lead after Aronian drew with Sergey Karjakin of Russia.
Thus it came down to the final round. Anand drew against Armenia’s Aronian but Nakamura was held to a draw by 13-year-old R Praggnanandhaa. Despite losing six successive games on Wednesday, the teenager showed fight against some of the world’s strongest players. Anand and Nakamura finished on top, with 12.5 points each.
“It’s just feels magical. It’s just a great day,” said Anand. “I am very proud of the way I played today. I was very disappointed with what I showed to the Chennai crowd (in the 2013 world title loss to Magnus Carlsen).
“I have always said I get much more tired when I play one bad game than when I play 10 good games. Today everything went well, I did not make many bad moves, even considering that we were playing blitz in which making blunders is routine.”
Nakamura said: “Vishy played great today… Garry (Kasparov) came back from retirement to play blitz in St Louis and I put him and Vishy in the same generation, and Vishy did better than him.”
Blitz final standings: V Anand, H Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, S Mamedyarov, P Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, S Karjakin, SS Ganguly, R Praggnanandhaa.