Wang Hao ended Viswanathan Anand’s slim hopes of claiming the lone qualifying spot to the Candidates Tournament by handing out a 28-move defeat in the 10th and penultimate round of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss tournament here on Sunday.
Anand, playing white, was desperate for a win. However, he floundered on the 24th move and committed a blundered on the 28th move. Wang Hao seized the moment and threatened to checkmate Anand or gain a bishop. Anand resigned at once. The defeat saw Anand (6 points) tumble to the 24th spot.
Second seed Fabiano Caruana took the lead at 7.5 points after beating David Anton Guijarro. Seven players shared the second spot with seven points.
Important 10th round results (Indians unless stated):
Viswanathan Anand (6) lost to Wang Hao (Chn, 6); Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vie, 6) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (6); B. Adhiban (5.5) lost to P. Hari Krishna (6); Sandro Mereco (Arg, 5.5) drew with K. Sasikiran (5.5); S. P. Sethuraman (6) bt Alexei Shirov (Esp, 5); D. Gukesh (5.5) drew with Aleksey Dreev (Rus, 5.5); S. L. Narayanan (5) lost to Hrant Melkumyan (Arm, 6); Baseem Amin (Egy, 5.5) bt Raunak Sadhwani (5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5) drew with Viktor Erdos (Hun, 5); Abhimanyu Puranik (5) drew with Ioannis Papaioannou (Gre, 5); D. Harika (5) drew with Alexander Riazantsev (Rus, 5); Gawain Jones (Eng, 4.5) drew with Nihal Sarin (4.5); Vasif Durarbayli (Aze, 5) bt Soumya Swaminathan (4); Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mgl, 4.5) bt Prithu Gupta (3).
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