Viswanathan Anand failed to change his fortunes as the former world champion suffered his third defeat in four games at the London Chess Classic here.
Anand went down to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in what was his second straight loss following a defeat against Alexander Grischuk in the previous round. After the seventh round, the Indian is now struggling with just 2.5 points in his kitty.
With just two more rounds to go, Vachier-Lagrave took the sole lead with his second victory in the tournament.
The day witnessed many interesting games and world champion Magnus Carlsen finally scored a much-needed victory over Hikaru Nakamura of United States, while Levon Aronian of Armenia downed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in quick time.
Erstwhile sole leader Anish Giri had to be content with another draw with Fabiano Caruana of United States, while Michael Adams remained impregnable with his defense and signed peace with Alexander Grischuk of Russia.
Vachier-Lagarve took his tally to 4.5 points following a picturesque finish against Anand and he is now trailed by Carlsen, Giri, Grischuk and Aronian who all have four points apiece.
Caruana, Nakamura and Adams share the sixth spot with 3.5 points each, while Anand on 2.5 is on ninth spot, a full point ahead of Topalov, who stands last.
“I feel like I played quite well today; at the same time I don’t think it should win any beauty prize,” said Vachier-Lagrave adding, “The final combination was nice but there were a lot of mistakes and oversights throughout the game.”
The Frenchman was optimistic and cautious at the same time, “Of course to be leading two games before the end, it’s a good feeling, but the standings are close so I need push again in the last two games to win the event,” he said.
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