India’s Viswanathan Anand took the 10th and final position in the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz chess tourney that concluded here on Thursday, securing 13.5 points out of a possible 27 games. Anand will now combat the world’s best, including Magnus Carlsen of Norway, in the Sinquefield cup that starts after a day’s break.
Anand never got going after scoring a first-round victory over Hikaru Nakamura of the U.S., the eventual winner, in the rapid section and this could be saving the blushes as Nakamura emerged as the clear winner of this leg. On the final day, Anand scored four points out of a possible nine in the blitz section that left him with 7.5/18, a score which did not help much.
Nakamura triumphs
Nakamura won the event handsomely with a round to spare.
The American scored 22.5 points in total and ended a full point clear of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, who finished second. Just a half point behind was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan for his third-place finish.
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Fabiano Caruana took the fourth place with 20 points, two points ahead of Levon Aronian of Armenia.
The Competition still remains but it is quite unlikely for Anand to finish in top four now in the overall Grand Chess tour standings that guarantees a playoff in London later this year.
However, the Indian would like to test his form ahead of the Chess Olympiad.
- 1. Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 22.5);
- 2. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 21.5);
- 3. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 21);
- 4. Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 20);
- 5. Levon Aronian (Arm, 18);
- 6. Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 17);
- 7. Leinier Dominguez (Cub, 16);
- 8. Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 15.5);
- 9. Wesley So (Usa, 15);
- 10. V Anand (Ind, 13.5).
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