Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands), Jan 25: Desperately in need of some big wins, world champion Viswanathan Anand will take on former women’s world champion Yifan Hou of China in the 11th round of 75th Tata Steel Chess tournament here.
With 6.5 points from 10 games thus far, Anand has a tall task on hand if he wants to have a go at his sixth title here.
The Indian ace shares the second spot along side Levon Aronian of Armenia and Hikaru Nakamura of United States, but the difference between the trio and the leader Magnus Carlsen of Norway is huge.
Carlsen is sitting pretty on eight points and enjoys a 1.5 points lead which is likely to see him as a clear winner.
However, as the tournament reaches its business end with three rounds remaining, all his pursuers are likely to try their best to do a catch-up act.
Anand has the best chance and he is likely to give it his best shot. After Yifan, the Indian is set to play Erwin L’Ami of Holland and Wang Hao of China in the last two rounds.
The three opponents currently rank 11-13 in the 14-players round robin tournament, meaning Anand has a relative easier opposition to meet.
However, it seems that nothing less than three wins would suffice for Anand which is something very hard to achieve especially with two black games left.
Carlsen on the other hand has Wang Hao, Nakamura and Anish Giri of Holland left and the minimum that the Norwegian will be hoping for is a 50 per cent score. (PTI)
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