Anand shows glimpses of old, Nakamura blitzes to sole lead

TATA OPEN CHESS Fivetime world champion opens with three successive victories but a loss to Aronian in the ninth round pegs back the 48yearold

KOLKATA: With three successive wins, it seemed like Viswanathan Anand was getting into his groove. The original “Lightening Kid” finally made his presence felt in the blitz section of the Tata Steel Chess India 2018 on Tuesday. And for some time it looked like Anand was cruising.

However, a couple of draws and a poor game against Levon Aronian in the ninth round meant Anand fell back, but was still in contention at joint fourth with compatriot P Harikrishna.

Hikaru Nakamura seems to have picked up from where he ended and held a half-point lead with 6.5 points from nine rounds. His American compatriot Wesley So stood second, having made a brilliant comeback in the second half of the blitz competition.

Nakamura led after the first round itself and after fifth round had a full point lead over secondplaced Anand, but he was held to draws in the last four rounds. Particularly difficult for Nakamura to stomach would be the ninth round draw against R Praggnanandhaa, the world’s youngest GM.

Praggnanandhaa defeated Sergey Karjakin and Surya Shekhar Ganguly, the win against Karjakin was most satisfying for him as the Russian holds the record as the youngest GM the game has seen.

Harikrishna, Mamedyarev and Anand moved to share the second spot with fluctuating results. Anand, who started with two draws, lost to Karjakin in the third, raising doubts of a struggle like in the rapid, in which he was seventh among 10 players.

However, the 48-year-old struck back by beating Ganguly in the fourth. Harikrishna outplayed Aronian in the fourth but his progress was stymied with a loss to Wesley So in the fifth.

ANAND ON SONG

Having tasted his first win in India in many years, Anand defeated compatriot R Praggnanandhaa, in a wild game against a player who was not even born when he became world champion for the first time, and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi in successive games as he took clear second spot at one stage, one point behind Nakamura (5) with Harikrishna and Mamedyarov trailing a further halfpoint behind at 3.5 points at that stage.

With three successive wins under his belt, Anand seemed to have regained his confidence back when he ran into Nakamura in the seventh round. But both played failed to make much headway in the position they landed after the opening and agreed to sign peace treaty.