Press Trust of India
London, Dec 14: Viswanathan Anand played out a tame draw with Anish Giri of Holland to finish ninth out of 10 competitors in the London Classic while Magnus Carlsen of Norway won the event here Monday.
Anand ended the Classic on 3.5 points out of a possible nine, winning one, losing three and drawing the remaining five games. In the Grand Chess Tour standings, Anand finished on the eighth spot overall with 14 points.
Carlsen beat Russian Alexander Grischuk in the final round game with a little luck by his side and then won the tie-breaker against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France to ensure his top spot.
Giri finished second in the overall standings of Grand Chess tour and London Classic. But, Vachier-Lagrave’s attempt for another break in the tour was thwarted as Levon Aronian finished third and only top three get a direct seeding in the GCT next year. Anand will be a part of it.
On the last day, Anand faced the Berlin defence from Giri who was content not to look for more given his half point lead over Carlsen. The Indian could not get any advantage as the young Dutch was well-armed and gave nothing away. The draw was a fair
result.
“Of course I was thinking about all possibilities. I’m also a spectator and I like to speculate all imaginable possible scenarios. This time I’m also involved as a player which is nice, but it didn’t affect my play,” Giri said after the game.
