Wijk aan Zee: Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand scored a crushing victory over Shakhriayar Mamedyartov of Azerbaijan in the eighth round to share the lead with Norway’s Magnus Carlsen in the Tata Steel chess tournament here.
Having outclassed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia as black in the previous round, Anand, a five times winner here, continued his demolition act and grounded Mamaedyarov who currently holds the third position in the world rankings.
The Indian ace took his tally to 5.5 points out of a possible eight and is matched only by reigning World Champion Carlsen who himself played a fine game to beat Richard Rapport of Hungary. With two leaders in front, Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, Ding Liren of China and local star Anish Giri are right on their heels, tailing by half a point.
Temour Radjabov of Azerbaijan is in sole sixth spot on 4.5 points while other Indian Vidit Gujrathi shares the seventh spot having four points in all. Five rounds still remain in the first super tournament of the year.
Wijk aan Zee has been Anand’s favourite hunting ground for over two decades and he seems to be again hitting his top form here. Mamaedyarov was outwitted in all departments of the game. The Caro Kann defense by the Azerbaijan GM met with the topical advance variation and Anand was in control after a slight inaccuracy by Mamedyarov on 12th move itself.
Anand increased his advantage in a flurry thereafter and struck in the centre with a smart pawn sacrifice. Mamedyarov was outdone thereafter as the Indian temporarily left his rook in the middle of the board and some moves later another tactic on the same square ended the game. It was over in 29 moves.
