Viswanathan Anand finishes last in St. Louis Rapid and blitz

As the St. Louis Rapid and blitz came to an end, Viswanathan Anand will now be participating in the Sinquefield Cup scheduled to take place just after a day from the St. Louis Rapid and blitz. Here, Anand will be facing the world’s best chess players, which includes World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway. The St. Louis Rapid and blitz was not a very successful event for Anand as he finished last in the tournament, accumulating 13.5 points in total of the 27 games that were played in the event.

Anand's only victorious moment was defeating Hikaru Nakamura of United States. Despite the first round victory being the only achievement on Anand's side, he was able to defeat Nakamura, who later won the tournament.

Anand's last day score reveals four points, when nine would have been possible in the blitz section. He was left with 7.5 points out of 18. With this, being included in the top four in the overall Grand Chess tour standings will be quite difficult for Anand. The standings would have guaranteed a play-off in London later this year.

With 22.5 points, Hikaru Nakamura won the tournament with a round to spare. A clear point behind was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France. The third position was occupied by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, who was half a point behind Lagrave. With 20 points, Fabiano Caruana finished fourth, while Levon Aronian of Armenia stood fifth with 18 points.