St Louis: Viswanathan Anand defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in the seventh round Wednesday to jump to the joint top position in the Sinquefield Cup chess tournament here.
The second straight victory with white pieces took Anand to 4.5 points from seven rounds and with just two rounds remaining in the super tournament, the Indian ace now shares the lead with overnight leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Levon Aronian of Armenia.
It was a customary Sicilian Najdorf by Nepomniachtchi and Anand went for a popular system he has been employing recently.
The middle game gave a slight advantage to Anand but it proved to be optical as the game progressed. After the trading of queens, the position simplified further to a rook and minor piece endgame. “I was not thinking of an advantage at that point,” Anand said after the game.
The position equally poised but suddenly Nepomniachtchi had a major lapse in concentration as he gave a pawn and then followed it up with another erroneous move.
“He just seemed to fall apart,” said Anand as Nepomniachtchi, visibly angry with himself, left the hall after the game that lasted 40 moves.
In another match, Aronian beat Hikaru Nakamura of United States, who was outdone amidst complexities.
The other games played in the day ended in draws. Vachier-Lagrave and Russian Sergey Karjakin shared points while World Champion Magnus Carlsen also played out a draw against Peter Svidler of Russia.
Press trust of India
