BADEN-BADEN (Germany) : Viswanathan Anand’s campaign ended on a sour note as he lost to English Grandmaster Michael Adams in the seventh and final round to finish seventh in the Grenke Chess Classic, here today.
A victory could have propelled him to a much needed 50% score but Anand let go a drawn endgame through another blunder to end on just 2.5 points in his first Classical tournament of the year.
The loss also meant a heavy slide of 15 rating points for Anand as he also slipped to ninth spot in world rankings.
With three losses, a lone victory and three draws in the tournament, Anand finished a dismal seventh. He faced the Catalan opening as black against Adams.
The game continued with Adams making only a marginal progress and the exchange of pieces at regular intervals led to a level rook and pawns endgame with little chances for either side.
Adams, with his better placed rook, kept trying and Anand was at his usual self in defense with the game headed to a draw. Further exchanges resulted in a pawn plus position for Adams but the pawns were on same flank.
Another day, Anand would have easily held the draw but this year’s Grenke tournament was certainly not his favourite ground as the Indian blundered on 84th move and resigned five moves later.
World champion Magnus Carlsen meanwhile added another crown to his long list, winning the title after a long-drawn tiebreak battle against Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany.
After both Naiditsch and Carlsen drew the final round and tied for the first spot on 4.5 points each, the battle extended to the tiebreak games of shorter duration to decide the winner.
In the first set of two games, both players shared one victory while in the second set both games were drawn. This brought the tiebreaker to the final Armageddon game that Carlsen won, showing precise judgement after a positional exchange sacrifice. (AGENCIES)
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