The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Nakamura wins title; Anand second

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Nakamura wins title; Anand second

NEW DELHI: With World champion Viswanathan Anand signing peace with Russian youngster Ian Nepomniachtchi, USA's Hikaru Nakamura's quick draw against China's Wang Hao proved enough to earn him the coveted Tata Steel chess title at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Sunday.

Nakamura, ranked 10th in the world, tallied nine points, half a point more than Anand to top a very strong field that featured the world's top four ranked players.

After Nakamura drew with Wang Hao in just 22 moves, all the focus was on Anand's game since a victory for the Indian would have tied him for the title.

But Anand, despite a slightly better position with black pieces, could not find a breakthrough and settled for a draw in 37 moves.

The title was the first for Nakamura at this annual destination while for five-time winner Anand, the effort was worth the runner-up spot for the sixth time. A final-round victory for Levon Aronian over Dutchman Jan Smeets will tie the Armenian for the second spot.

On Saturday evening, Anand was extremely lucky to escape defeat against Anish Giri. The youngest player in the field committed a blunder on the 49th move and draw was agreed on the very next turn.

Carlsen (8), who outwitted Vladmir Kramnik in 80 moves late on Friday, drew with Alexander Grischuk in the final round after having crushed Wang Hao on Saturday.

In Group ‘B' Surya Shekhar Ganguly finished with 5.5 points after a final-round draw with Vietnam's Le Quang Liem. On Saturday, Ganguly handed out a struggling top seed Poland's Radek Wojtaszek his fourth defeat of the competition.

Tania Sachdev (6.5 points), performed above expectations in Group ‘C' by beating Dutch International Master Mark van der Werf. But in the final round, she surrendered to Germany's Sebastian Siebrecht.

The results (12th round): Group ‘A': Viswanathan Anand (8) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 6); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 8.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 7); Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 4) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 7.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 7.5) bt Wang Hao (Chn, 5.5); Maxime Vachier Lagrave (Fra, 7) bt Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 5.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 4) lost to Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 4); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 6) drew with Alexei Shirov (Esp, 3.5) .

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