Bilbao, (Spain): World champion Viswanathan Anand's hunt for an elusive victory continued as he was held to a draw by Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the eighth round of the fifth Final Masters here at the Alhondiga.
The eighth draw in as many games means that Anand is now out of any real title contention in the six-player double round-robin tournament barring a miracle that seems pretty unlikely. Draws, in fact, were the order of the day as other two games in the super tournament also reached the same result.
Sergey Karjakin of Russia signed peace with world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway while Levon Aronian of Armenia suffered before he could split the point with Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain. With just two rounds remaining now, Caruana and Carlsen remained firmly in front on 13 points in the soccer-like scoring system in place here.
Aronian remains the only real threat to the two leaders on 10 points while Anand could only inch himself up to eight with each of his draw fetching just one point. Karjakin remains fifth on six points while Vallejo Pons is at the bottom of the tables having amassed five points so far....
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06:31 PM, Oct 12, 2012
Bilbao: World champion Viswanathan Anand's hunt for an elusive victory continued as he was held to a draw by Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the eighth round of the fifth Final Masters here at the Alhondiga. The eighth draw in as many games means that Anand is now out of any real title contention in the six-player double round-robin tournament barring a miracle that seems pretty unlikely. Draws, in fact,...
10:30 AM, Oct 12, 2012
Bilbao: World Champion Viswanathan Anand played out his sixth draw on the trot, signing peace with Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain in round six of fifth Final Masters chess championship here. The second leg of the championship, which got underway after a week's break, was not expected to be very promising for Anand as he plays three black games out of five here and the trend continued as Vallejo Pons...
11:11 AM, Oct 09, 2012
Sao Paulo: World Champion Viswanathan Anand's hunt for the elusive victory continued as he played out fifth draw on the trot, signing peace with Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the fifth round of 5th Final Masters, here. Yet another draw, coming with white pieces, did not serve Anand's cause in any way as the lead positions remained unchanged after the end of the Sao Paulo leg of the super tournament....
12:33 PM, Sep 30, 2012
Sao Paulo: Aiming for a win that has so far been elusive, world champion Viswanathan Anand will lock horns with an out-of-form Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the fourth round of the fifth Final Masters here. With the business end of the tournament at Bilbao still more than a week away, Anand will be hoping for a positive result against Karjakin which may help him reach closer to the top...
12:43 PM, Sep 28, 2012
Bilbao: World Champion Viswanthan Anand recovered a little to beat Francisco Vallejo Pons of Ukraine in the tenth and final round of 4th Final Masters and had to be content with a fifth place finish in the six-player double round-robin that concluded here. Languishing at the last place at the start of the final round, the onus was on Anand to come out with flying colours and for once, Vallejo's...
08:16 AM, Oct 12, 2011
Bilbao: World Champion Viswanathan Anand played his fourth draw on the trot, sharing the point with tournament leader Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine to slip to the fourth spot after the eighth round of the fourth Final Masters chess tournament. The draw as black came easy in the return game and Ivanchuk completed a 1.5-0.5 victory over Anand in the two games played in Bilbao. It may be recalled that the...
12:21 PM, Oct 09, 2011
Bilbao: Victory eluded Viswanathan Anand yet again and the world champion was held to a draw by Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the seventh round to remain joint second in the fourth Final Masters' second leg here. After his fifth draw, a sole victory and a loss, Anand remained on a 50 per cent score in the category-22 super tournament being played on a double round-robin format. In a...
10:27 AM, Oct 08, 2011
Sao Paulo: World Champion Viswanathan Anand has slipped to joint third spot after he was held to a draw by Levon Aronian of Armenia at the half way stage of the fourth Bilbao Final Masters here. Anand's third white in the tournament went in vain for the third time on the trot as the Indian ace could not use it to his advantage. The Indian's sole victory in the event...
03:23 PM, Oct 02, 2011
Sao Paulo: World Champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a rare loss, going down to Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the third round of the fourth Bilbao Final Masters here. After two fighting draws, Anand did not achieve much in the opening as white, and once his position worsened Ivanchuk played in machine-like fashion to force a victory. It was in fact a day of the underdogs in the Final Masters as...
01:01 PM, Sep 29, 2011
Sao Paulo (Brazil): It will be a clash of the titans as world champion Viswanathan Anand will take on world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the first round of the Bilbao Final Masters chess tournament in Brazil. The concluding event of the Grand Slam will be played in two parts of five rounds each. While the first leg will be held in Ibirapuera Park in the center of...
02:34 PM, Sep 26, 2011
