Age, to some people, can be merely a number. Viswanathan Anand proved that yet again, with his splendid show at the Champions Showdown chess tournament in St. Louis, United States, on Monday night. The genial chess from Chennai, who will turn 47 next month, finished first in the elite tournament, featuring four of the world’s top players.
Since it clashed with the World championship title match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in New York, it did not get as much media attention as it would have under normal circumstances.
The current World championship title match, by the way, is the first one that is being played without Anand for a decade. The World No. 7 made up somewhat for that with his superb effort in the St. Louis effort.
It is an achievement he could be proud of, for he pushed behind two of the strongest players in the world at the moment – Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruna, both of the United States. Caruna, 24, is ranked No. 2 in the world, while 28-year-old Nakamura is the World No. 8.
Anand would also be pleased about the fact that he triumphed in an event that featured all the three time controls in chess – classical, rapid and blitz. He finished with 15 points, one point ahead of runner-up Nakamura.
Caruna was third with 11 points. Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov, whom Anand defeated in the 2010 World championship title match, could only garner eight points to finish last.
Anand also became richer by $ 60,000, while Nakamura took home $ 40,000. The tournament had a total prize fund of $ 150,000.
The standings: 1. Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 15 points, 2. Hikaru Nakamura (US) 14, 3. Fabiano Caruana (US) 11, 4. Veselin Topalov (Bul) 8.
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