Norway Chess: Anand beats Tari in final round, finishes third; Carlsen keeps title

Viswanathan Anand beats Aryan Tari in the ninth round to finish third; Magnus Carlsen wins the title.

Viswanathan Anand took third place with 14.5 points from nine rounds.

Viswanathan Anand signed off his campaign in the Norway Chess 2022 with a ninth-round victory over local challenger Aryan Tari in their Armageddon game to finish third at Stavanger on Friday.

Magnus Carlsen won the Armageddon against Veselin Topalov to keep the title for the fourth successive year and for the fifth time in 10 editions.

By this time, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov appeared in good position to beat his Azerbaijani teammate Teimour Radjabov and win the title. However, Radjabov defended the position very well despite being short of time. The eventual draw gave Mamedyarov the runner-up spot.

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Carlsen acknowledged Radjabov for his role in the title-win. “I was massively impressed by the way Radjabov played in time trouble. Being down to one minute he played so well. I don’t know where he got the energy or the motivation from that was pretty damn impressive!

Anand, whose chances of winning the title evaporated following a one-move blunder against Mamedyarov , did admit losing some sleep over it.

“In fact it was a pity, because if I had seen what I saw while my hand was still touching the queen I could still rotate the queen to f5 (another square), but I did everything perfectly. I even resigned, which afterwards it turns out was a slight mistake. If he had thought for 10 minutes he might have found it, but he might also just have made his move without thinking. Who knows!

He summed up by saying, “Anyway, it seems that I have to do this to myself at least once per tournament, and that’s what I do.”

• 1. Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 16.5 points,
• 2. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) 15.5,
• 3. Viswanathan Anand (India) 14.5,
• 4. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (14),
• 5. Wesley So (USA) 12.5,
• 6. Anish Giri (12),
• 7. Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Aryan Tari (Norway) 9.5,
• 9. Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 8,
• 10. Wang Hao (China) 7.5.