Sinquefield Cup: Viswanathan Anand lets Ding Liren off the hook

With no decisive games for the second successive day, Anand, Ding and Fabiano Caruana continued to lead at four points.

Viswanathan Anand missed a possible win against fellow leader Ding Liren before all games ended as draws.

Viswanathan Anand missed a possible win against fellow leader Ding Liren before all games ended as draws in the seventh round of the Sinquefield Cup chess tournament here on Saturday.

With no decisive games for the second successive day, Anand, Ding and Fabiano Caruana continued to lead at four points. Four rounds remain.

Anand, playing black, settled for a draw in the day’s longest battle lasting 60 moves. At one stage, the Indian managed to trade a knight and a pawn for rook by the 23rd move after the opening lines of Catalan.

But three moves later, Anand’s decision to play the queen, instead of moving the knight to a strategic square at the centre of the board, proved instrumental in Ding escaping with half a point.

The results (seventh round): Ding Liren (Chn, 4) drew with Viswanathan Anand (4); Anish Giri (Ned, 3) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4); Wesley So (USA, 3.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 3.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 3.5) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 3.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3.5) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 3.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 3).