The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand draws with Grischuk

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Anand draws with Grischuk

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand's short draw with Russia's Alexander Grischuk allowed USA's Hikaru Nakamura to catch up with the Indian in the lead at 4.5 points after six rounds of the Tata Steel chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, in the Netherlands, on Friday.

Like Nakamura, serious contenders Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, seeded one and four, also won with black pieces while young sensation Anish Giri, playing white, lost.

Armed with a half-point lead after beating Jan Smeets late on Thursday, Anand showed aggressive intent during the 23-move Sicilian game, which was the first to finish. Playing white, Anand castled on the queen's side in a bid to launch an attack on Grischuk's castled king on the opposite flank.

But Grischuk, looking for his first victory after two losses, quickly sensed the danger and safely nullified Anand's designs. The players needed less than two hours to sign the peace treaty.

In Group ‘B', Surya Shekhar Ganguly lost a wild game against David Navara in 35 moves.

The results (sixth round): Group ‘A': Viswanathan Anand (4.5) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2); Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 2) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 4.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5) drew with Wang Hao (Chn, 2.5); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 1) lost to Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 3) lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 3.5); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 3) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 3.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 2) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3.5) .

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