St Louis: Viswanathan Anand failed to conjure up a last round win over Wesley So of United States and finished joint second after their match ended in a stalemate in the Sinquefield Cup chess tournament, which concluded here Friday.
Finishing with a tally of 5.5 points out of a possible nine, Anand also gained some valuable rating points to inch closer to the 2,800 rating mark. With seven draws and two victories, Anand has moved to seventh place in the world rankings. He remained unbeaten in the tournament.
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Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France deservedly won the title with his best ever performance in an elite tournament.
With a photo-finish guaranteed before the start of the round, the tone was set by Vachier-Lagrave who scored a crushing victory against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia to take his tally to an insurmountable six points.
The other overnight leader Levon Aronian’s super-run in super-events ended as he ran into a resurgent reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
Carlsen won a fine game to join Anand in second spot, while Aronian had to be content with the joint fourth spot along with Sergey Karjakin of Russia.
For Anand there was no real chance to score a win as Wesley So expectedly played a solid line with white pieces. Anand in fact was in some trouble in the middle game with a worse pawn structure and position but it did not mean much as So has been woefully out of form in this event. A rook and pawns endgame was reached quickly and the players signed the peace after 33 moves.
Press Trust of India
