Sinquefield Cup: Draw keeps Anand in joint second spot

Viswanathan Anand stayed joint second following an easy draw with black pieces against Sergey Karjakin in the sixth round of the Sinquefield Cup chess tournament here on Tuesday. When the action commenced after a day’s rest, only Levon Aronian managed to emerge as a winner after facing an off-form World No. 2 Wesley So.

The 32-move victory saw Aronian join Anand and Magnus Carlsen at the second spot at 3.5 points, half a point behind leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Three more rounds remain. Anand was comfortable right through the 30-move contest which witnessed a series of exchanges. When the draw was agreed – following the opening lines of Trompowsky – the players were left with a knight and six pawns each.

Lagrave hung on to his half-point lead after batting to a draw against Fabiano Caruana. Carlsen, up a pawn in the middle game against Hikaru Nakamura, appeared to be headed for another victory but misplayed a move and thereafter his rival defended well to draw in 94 moves.

The results

Sixth round: Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 3) drew with Viswanathan Anand (3.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 3) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2.5); Levon Aronian (3.5) bt Wesley So (USA, 2); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2.5) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 2).

Seventh round pairings: Anand-Nepomniachtchi; Lagrave-Karjakin; Svidler-Carlsen; Nakamura-Aronian; So-Caruana.