Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand produced a beauty of a finish to dump Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the second round of the London Chess Classic here.
The victory gave Anand a share of the second spot behind leader Wesley So, who posted his second successive victory and reached a live rating of 2800.
In the last edition of the premier event, Anand played white against Lagrave and lost. On Saturday, Anand once again sat behind white pieces and watched Lagarave re-employ the Sicilian Najdorf. As it turned out, a better-prepared Anand came out stronger in 33 moves following a nice bishop-sacrifice.
Wesley So, who defeated Hikaru Nakamura on Friday, doubled his tally with a 40-move victory over local hope Michael Adams. Caruana was the other winner of the day after dismissing Veselin Topalov in 38 moves.
The results:
Second round: Viswanathan Anand (1.5) bt Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (0.5); Wesley So (2) bt Michael Adams (0); Vladimir Kramnik (1.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5); Anish Giri (1) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (0.5); Veselin Topalov (0) lost to Fabiano Caruana (1.5).
Third round pairings: Nakamura-Anand; Caruana-Kramnik; Aronian-So; Lagrave-Topalov; Adams-Giri
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