Anand draws with Carlsen

In an endgame involving a rook each and pawns, Carlsen’s capture of a pawn on the 60th move was much to Anand’s relief. The Indian seized the opportunity and after six moves, a draw was agreed.

A file picture of Viswanathan Anand.

Viswanathan Anand needed a slice of luck to hold World champion Magnus Carlsen in 66 moves in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup chess championship here on Friday.

With all five games ending in draws, there was no change in the leaderboard. Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabianbo Caruana stayed ahead with two points each. Anand and four others are at 1.5 points each.

In the Ruy Lopez game, that followed the Mueller variation, Anand looked a bit worried following the middle-game where he lost a pawn on the 43rd move.

Thereafter, Anand battled gamely even as Carlsen tried to press home the extra-pawn advantage. In an endgame involving a rook each and pawns, Carlsen’s capture of a pawn on the 60th move was much to Anand’s relief. The Indian seized the opportunity and after six moves, a draw was agreed. The results: Third round: Viswanathan Anand (1.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 1); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 0.5); Wesley So (USA, 1.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 1.5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 1.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5).