Viswanathan Anand scored a memorable victory over Vladimir Kramnik in 57 moves and shared the lead at 4.5 points from seven rounds of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here on Saturday.
The victory helped Anand join Magnus Calrsen, Anish Giri and Ding Liren at the top. Ian Nepomniachtchi, the other leader, was locked in an intense battle with Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
In the Guico Piano game, Anand gained from Kramnik's decision to let go of a central pawn early. It was on the 36th move, when the Russian chose to move his rook from the queen-side to the extreme rank on the kingside that Anand seized his opportunity. Gradually, Anand's rooks and two minor pieces controlled the strategic squares. Before long. Anand claimed a rook for a knight and advanced his queen-rook pawn to the seventh rank. Kramnik sensed the inevitable and resigned.
Vidit Gujarati, however, suffered his first loss after running into Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov.
In the Challengers section, young R. Praggnanandhaa posted his first victory after overpowering local Stefan Kuipers in 23 moves. Praggnanandhaa’s triumph after five successive draws raised his tally to 3.5 points and lifted him to the joint seventh spot in the 14-player field.
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