Vishy Anand back in title hunt after beating Veselin Topalov

Anish Giri of Holland, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Nakamura share the top spot, with three points each, after five rounds at the London Chess Classic. Anand, who was at the ninth spot after his defeat to Nakamura climbed up to fourth place in the rankings after defeating Topalov. The Bulgarian suffered his third loss of the event on Tuesday, after being defeated by Anish Giri in the first round and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the third round.

Anand started the ten-player round-robin event by settling for a draw against Michael Adams of England, in the first round on December 4. In the second round, the Indian drew with Levon Aronian of Armenia to take his points tally to one out of the possible two. The Indian ace met former World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the third round. Anand put up a strong effort to earn a draw with Carlsen and took his points tally to 1.5 in three games. After his defeat against Nakamura in the fourth round and a win against Topalov in the fifth, Anand now has 2.5 points out of the possible five.

With four rounds remaining, the Indian is 0.5 point away from the leading pack in the $ 30,000 prize money tournament. The ten-player round-robin event has no matches today and the sixth round will take place on December 10, with Anand taking on Russia’s Alexander Grischuk.