Anand beats Carlsen, jumps to No. 1 in live ratings

Bilbao (Spain), Oct 11 (PTI) World Champion Viswanathan
Anand defeated Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and jumped to top spot
in unofficial live ratings after the end of the second round
of the ongoing Bilbao Final Masters chess tournament here.
The Indian chess master cashed in his chances with black
pieces and the victory gave him the top ranking in live
ratings as Carlsen, who arrived here as the number one chess
player, is losing important rating points now.
After the victory over Carlsen, Anand, with one win and
one draw, is just two points behind the Russian Vladimir
Kramnik, who is in sole lead on six points after defeating
Alexei Shirov of Spain in the the category-22 tournament that
has a football like scoring system.
Shirov is long-way third with just one point that he
earned after drawing with Anand in the opener.
Surprisingly, Magnus Carlsen is in the cellar and yet to
open his account with four rounds still to come. He had a
forgettable show in the just concluded chess Olympiad and here
too his fortune does not seem to be changing after a first
round loss against Kramnik.
Playing the black side of a Berlin defence for the second
day running, Anand faced the closed Ruy Lopez set up that is
in vogue thanks to the efforts of Grandmaster Ian
Nepomniachtchi of Russia among others.
Anand's home work, however, yet again came good as
Carlsen was not able to get anything worthwhile after the
opening and once the queens were off the board, the experts
predicted a draw as it was difficult for either side to make
any great progress.
However, Carlsen had other ideas as he went haywire with
his planning. In the post game conference the G-Star model
confessed that he evaluated that after his 31st move
'everything was a dead draw' and thought 'why not make a draw
this way'.
This line of thinking proved costly as Carlsen went wrong
on the 33rd move and a further mistake sealed his fate
quickly. Anand took the point home after 45 moves.
Kramnik was pleasantly surprised to face the Slav defense
by Shirov who was outplayed after making a simple opening
mistake. Trying to exchange quickly to equalise, the Spaniard
did not quite find the right path and lost an exchange in the
middle game to never recover again. The game lasted 41 moves.
The next round will be Anand's first white in the
tournament and he will face leader Kramnik. A victory will
give Anand sole lead while a draw will help Kramnik's position
at the helm. PTI CORR
MHM