Viswanathan Anand outplays Raunak Sadhwani; S Kidambi draws Vladimir Kramnik

The Isle of Man International has been known over the last few years for being one of the strongest open chess tournaments of the year. Despite the top four players in the world avoiding it this year, it boasts of a star-studded line-up that included all of the remaining six from the world’s top ten. All the top 20 seeds in the tournament are rated above Elo 2700 which made it the strongest open of the year.

And Indian chess legend - Viswanathan Anand showed why he so revered the world over after he displayed grit as he outplayed youngster Raunak Sadhwani in the first round of the tournament yesterday. The five-time world champion kept his cool as he saw off Sadhwani in an entertaining match. 

Meanwhile, fellow compatriot - S Kidambi managed to record a promising draw against Russian grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik in the opening round of the tournament. Kramnik, who was seeded fourth in the tournament, is renowned for his deep opening knowledge and that helped initially in maintaining the balance. But towards the end of the match, the former World Champion tried many tricks but his Indian counterpart eluded them successfully.

Another strong display from the Indian contingent came as IM CRG Krishna also played out a draw with Wesley So of the United States. Krishna was in dicey situations throughout the game but managed to hold on for a draw at the end of the day. Also, Indian youngster IM Harshit Raja held Hungary’s Richard Rapport to a draw while Arjun Kalyan also shared the spotlight by splitting points with Le Quang Leim of Vietnam.