GCT Superbet: Anand wins title with a round to spare

Viswanathan Anand ensured the title with a round to spare after his nearest challenger Richard Rapport lost to Wesley So in the eighth and penultimate round.

FILE PHOTO: Viswanathan Anand scored 14 points from a maximum of 18 after nine rounds.

Viswanathan Anand made his comeback to elite competitions memorable by winning the rapid section of the Grand Chess Tour Superbet chess tournament at Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday.

In fact, Anand ensured the title with a round to spare after his nearest challenger Richard Rapport lost to Wesley So in the eighth and penultimate round.

Anand played the final round with an unsurpassable three-point lead. However, in an equal position, Anand seriously erred with a queen-move on the 35th turn and resigned on the next.

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For the record, Anand scored 14 points from a maximum of 18 after nine rounds. On the final day, Anand defeated last-man David Gavrilescu, drew with Fabiano Caruana and lost to Rapport.

The 10-man field will be involved in 18 rounds of blitz competition to be played over the next two days. In blitz, the players get five minutes on the clock plus a two-second increment for each move made to finish each game.

Final standings (rapid): 1. Viswanathan Anand (14 points), 2. Richard Rapport (Hun, 13), 3. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 12), 4. Wesley So (USA, 11), 5. Levon Aronian (USA, 10), 6. Fabiano Caruana (USA, 9), 9. Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 7), 8. Kirill Shevchenko (Ukr, 7), 9. Anton Korobov (Ukr, 5); 10. David Gavrilescu (Rom, 2).