Dubai, June 19:
Indian chess ace Viswanathan Anand came up with a thumping victory over reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen but had to settle for the bronze medal in the World Rapid Chess Championship that concluded here.
The game with Carlsen, who won Gold despite the defeat, was the talking point for thousands of chess buffs on the social media as Anand is set for a re-match with Carlsen in November to determine the next world champion.
Anand, a five-time world champion, had lost the crown to Carlsen last year.
Anand, tied at joint third spot on seven points before the start of the final day was trailing Carlsen by a full point and did well to beat the Norwegian in the twelfth round of the championship to declare his real intentions.
However, as it happened, Carlsen’s final spurt was still good enough to win the title on 11 points in all while a last minute surprise by Fabiano Caruana of Italy earned him the silver medal.
For the records, Carlsen ended with 11 points out of a possible 15 for a clear first place while Caruana, Anand and Alexander Morozevich of Russian ended joint second on 10.5 points apiece.
As the tie was resolved, Caruana was a bit superior to Anand while the Indian star was ahead of Levon Aronian of Armenia and Alexander Morozevich of Russia on tiebreak.
Anand, in fact, had last three drawn games after beating his arch-rival Carlsen.(PTI)
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