World champion Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand scored an impressive victory over Jan Smeets of Holland to jump to sole lead after the end of the fifth round of the 'A' group in the 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee. With his third victory from five games, Anand took his tally to four points and is now half a point ahead of nearest rival Hikaru Nakamura of United States who played out a draw with Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine.
The 73rd Tata Steel Chess in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands, saw the first shock result of the tournament when World No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway blundered and went down to talented Anish Giri of Holland in a mere 22 moves.
World champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by arch-rival Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the second round, in Group 'A', in the 73rd Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands. With just one decisive game in the premier group, Anand remains in joint-lead along with Jan Smeets of Holland, Hikaru Nakamura of United States and lone winner of the day Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, who defeated Wang Hao of China.
'It will be special. Looking forward to going to a world championship match without the tension of playing. I am a chess fan too and hope it will be a good match'
Anand firmly believes that India has enough talent to produce the next Chess World Champion
In 2019, World Champion Magnus Carlsen was asked to guess the nationality of the reigning world champion in 2050. He responded: 'India will have had many by then!'
Carlsen continued his dominating run as he took his lead to an almost unassailable five points.
Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi won Tata Steel Chess Challengers 2018, at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, on Sunday. The victory ensured him qualification for the Tata Steel Masters 2019, where leading chess players from across the world, including World champion Magnus Carlsen, will take part.
Six players -- Dubov, Nakamura, Aronian, Carlsen, Radjabov and So -- share the lead with 4.5 points after eight rounds.
Viswanathan Anand feels India cricket captain Virat Kohli became a bit emotional and lost control during his 'leave India' comment to a fan
Anand has been trying to play very complicated positions and the sixth round was no different.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with black against local star Anish Giri but slipped to joint second spot after the sixth round of Tata Steel Chess tournament, in Wijk Aan Zee, on Saturday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Indian chess great Viswanathan Anand sees signs of greatness in Nihal Sarin but says it's a long journey ahead for the impressive 14-year-old since there has been a trend of players struggling to replicate success as they age.
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