Press Trust of India
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Stavanger (Norway), June 20: Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand defeated reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen to jump to the joint third spot after the end of the fourth round of Norway Chess tournament here Saturday.
After consecutive three draws in the first four rounds, Anand’s hunt for the victory ended in a delightful manner as the Indian ace crushed Carlsen in all departments of the game to move up to 2.5 points out of a possible four. Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria tops the points table with three points after his victory against Levon Aronian of Armenia. Anand shares joint third spot with Holland’s Anish Giri with 2.5 points apiece.
Sitting on just a half point from four games, World Champion Carlsen faces a tough task to stage a comeback from his currently held last spot. For Anand it was a Breyer defence through transposition of moves in the Ruy Lopez opening. Playing white, the Indian ace took some time in the opening to reach the desired middle game.
“It took us half an hour each. If we had just played the Breyer, it would have taken us two minutes,”Anand said after the game. Carlsen went for a risky set-up allowing white an attack on the king side and Anand found some brilliant moves, including an incredible queen manoeuvre that brought his last stranded rook in the attack. Carlsen tried to salvage but Anand was in no mood to relent.
Asked about Magnus’s bad start, Anand said, “You have to see in the context of this first game. He played an excellent game and if he’d won that he’d be a different person.”
