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Anand finishes joint third in Corus chess
January 28, 2008

World champion Viswanathan Anand [Images] split points with Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the 13th and final round to share the third spot in Group A at the end of the Corus International Chess tournament on Monday.

Grandmaster Levoin Aronian of Armenia and Magnus Carlsen of Norway shared top honours in the category-20 event after drawing their games against Judit Polgar of Hungary and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan respectively.

Both Carlsen and Aronian ended with 8 points out of a possible 13 and Anand finished a half point behind on 7.5 along with Radjabov. Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Peter Leko of Hungary finished tied fifth on seven points apiece.

Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi spurned down his drawing alternatives and went down to 15-year-old Fabiano Crauana of Italy [Images] in the final round of Group C.

While Caruana won the 13-round event with a massive 10 points, Negi ended joint second along with Dimitry Reinderman of Holland on 8 points.

Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia expectedly emerged champion in Group B after taking an easy draw as white against Koneru Humpy.

It was a stupendous effort from Movsesian who ended on 9.5 points in all, a full point clear of nearest rivals Nigel Short of England [Images] and Etienne Bacrot of France [Images].

Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out a safe draw with Bacrot in the final round to finish clear fourth on 7.5 points.

Harikrishna will get a marginal increase in his rating but Humpy with her below 50 per cent score is going to lose few points.

Anand had Kramnik on the ropes and at some point it appeared that the Indian ace will pull out the important victory over Kramnik.

It was a Petroff defense by the Russian who played black and Anand was on top following an interesting idea that involved a pawn sacrifice.

Kramnik's queen was driving to the edge of the board as Anand increased the pressure in the middle game but the Russian was back in the game after an inaccuracy by the Indian on the 51st move.

Anand's piece sacrifice later gave him no real winning chances, and eventually, in an endgame where white had three pawns for the bishop, a draw was agreed after 61 moves.

Parimarjan employed the Marshall which did not turn out to be a good choice against Caruana who needed just a draw for clear first place.

Pariamrjan equalised with ease and could have taken a half point but the desire to play for a win was too strong in the Delhi-based teenager.

As it happened in the game, Caruana capitalised on a blunder in the first time control and ensured a full point with accurate play thereafter.



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