Viswanathan Anand could not come out of a draw melee and signed peace for the eighth time in nine rounds as the Sinquefield cup ended after conclusion of the ninth and final round here.
Up against Peter Svidler in the last round Anand displayed peaceful intentions with black pieces by going for the tried and tested Berlin and even though it was the ’Anti-Berlin’ by the seven-time Russian champion, the Indian was never in a spot of bother.
With eight draws and a sole victory against top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Anand will add a few rating points from the tournament but the Indian ace will be looking at an improved performance in the final leg of the Grand Chess tour at London in December.
Meanwhile, American Wesley So remained true to the situation and had a risk-free draw with Vachier-Lagrave again in the Berlin. No matter what the Frenchman replied Wesley always had the right solution and by 47th move all the pieces had gone off the board.
Wesley So, with 5.5 points in his kitty won the tournament a half point clear of nearest contenders Fabiano Caruana of United States, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Anand who all ended on five points in all.
Hikaru Nakamura of United States and Vachier-Lagrave tied for the sixth spot on 4.5 points each while Chinese Ding Liren ended sole eighth with four points in his kitty. Peter Svidler finished ninth another half point adrift while Anish Giri lost his third game in the event to finish last on three points.
For Anand, it was a good outing and the added points should help him inch closer to where the star belongs. Having gone off top 10 in FIDE rankings temporarily earlier this year, this has been a steady roll-back by Anand that now sees him on eighth spot in live world rankings.
While the final round was no problem Anand was able to convert his most difficult game in to a full point. The spate of draws aside, Anand was in troubles in only two games in the tournament while pressing for an advantage in many more.
The final round saw Fabiano Caruana finally winning a game at the expense of Anish Giri who has been completely off-form in the past two events now. Like Anand, Caruana had drawn eight games two and to match Anand on points and tie for the second spot, he needed this victory.
The other decisive game of last round was a swift victory by Nakamura who disposed of Ding Liren in just 28 moves. While Wesley So took home the winner’s cheque of $75000, four players finishing joint second including Anand got $36500 USD apiece.
Results final round: Peter Svidler (Rus, 3.5) drew with V Anand (Ind, 5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4.5) drew with Wesley So (Usa, 5.5); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 4.5) beat Ding Liren (Chn, 4); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 5); Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 5) beat Anish Giri (Ned, 3).
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