Former world champion Viswanathan Anand’s hunt for an elusive victory continued as he drew with American Wesley So in the fifth round of the Altibox Norway chess tournament, here on Monday.
Anand took his tally to 1.5 points out of a possible five and remained on the last spot in the 10-player round-robin tournament.
All the round five games ended in draws, leaving no changes in the overnight standings.
Having lost to Levon Aronian of Armenia, Magnus Carlsen was visibly upset as he had to battle for a draw against Anish Giri of Holland.
Russia's Vladimir Kramnik had some advantage against Hikaru Nakamura of United States while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France drew with Aronian. In the other game of the day, Fabiano Caruana of United States shared the point with Sergey Karjakin of Russia.
With just four rounds remaining, Nakamura leads the pack with 3.5 points. He is followed by Aronian and Kramnik who have three points each. Giri, Vachier, Caruana and Wesley are on 2.5 points, half a point ahead of Vachier and Karjakin.
Anand, playing with white pieces, employed the Italian opening but found Wesley adequately prepared. After an initial skirmish, the American equalised easily and gave no chances.
With three draws and two losses thus far, the onus is on Anand to claw back in the event. The Indian ace will certainly try to make some amends in the next round when he plays with Fabiano Caruana.
Results
Round 5: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 2.5); Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 1.5) drew with Wesley So (USA, 2.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 3); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 3.5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 2) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2.5).
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