Stavanger (Norway): Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand suffered his second defeat in the Altibox Norway chess tournament, losing to Anish Giri of Holland in the fourth round here.
After losing to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the second round, Anand got double black and the Indian star was under consistent pressure from a rejuvenated Giri, who had been sharing the bottom of the tables with Anand at the start of the fourth round.
Playing the black side of an English opening, Anand gave up the Bishop pair early in the opening and Giri benefitted thanks to his energetic play. By the 17th move, Giri took black’s remaining Bishop to boast of a double Bishop versus two Knights position wherein the computer suggested level chances but it was not so easy to play on the board.
As it happened in the game, after a rather rude king side breakthrough, Giri was able to gain a lot of space and won a pawn on 27th move to prove his superiority. Anand won the pawn back but his position deteriorated quickly and he resigned on the 33rd move.
After a rather dull first three days, it turned out to be abloody day as world champion Magnus Carlsen was grinded down by Levon Aronian of Armenia and Hikaru Nakamura scored his second victory in the event at the expense of Maxime Vachier- Lagrave of France.
The rest day apparently did a lot of good to the winners in this round. Vladimir Kramnik was trying to salvage a tough position against Fabiano Caruana of United States while Wesley So of United States was locked in a close battle with Sergey Karjakin.
Results round 4: Anish Giri (Ned, 2) beat V Anand (Ind, 1); Levon Aronian (Arm, 2.5) beat Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 3) beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1.5); Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 1.5) playing Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2); Wesley So (Usa, 1.5) playing Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 1.5).
PTI