Chennai: World champion Viswanathan Anand must be happy that he is not playingLevon Aronian in the title match next year. The champion suffered his worst loss since he retained his crown against the Armenian on Monday in the Bilbao Grand Slam Masterschess tournament and slumped to the bottom of the table with just a round to go.
In contrast, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen ofNorway showed he is the best tournament player now when he squeezed Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and caught up with him on the points table. The last round should be an exciting affair with Carlsen and Ivanchuk on level terms and trying to get their hands first on the top prize.
With Anand was on the backfoot right from the beginning when Aronian sacrificed a pawn, like Kasparov, and looked set for a strategic battle. However, Anand managed to pull things back and reached a queen, rooks and knight finish that almost looked like an ending around move 18. But the Armenian, who has a good record against the Indian in Classical chess, turned the game right on its head on move 19 when he posted his knight right in the enemy camp and followed it up with an equally destructive pawn push that quickly drove Anand to despair.
By combining the rooks and offering his queen, Aronian gave the world champion a deadly choice: get mated or lose a rook. The 25-move loss was the shortest the Indian suffered in two years in Classical chess. On the adjacent table, Carlsen played his pieces from the white side like a ballet dancer in Nimzo-Indian defence after getting the bishop pair. Ivanchuk's position got paralysed and the Norwegian broke open the kingside to come up with multiple threats.
Ivanchuk resisted for a while giving the queen but in the process fell in acute time trouble. Finally, Carlsen found the correct moves to win a piece and recollect three points. Ivanchuk and Carlsen shared the first position with 14 points followed by Aronian and Nakamura on 11. Vallejo Pons overtook Anand on the points tally (10 to 9) when he scored his third win of the tournament. Vallejo won a queen and rooks ending against Nakamura.
TOI
