London Chess Classic | Anand ends with a draw against Kramnik

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Viswanathan Anand finished fourth with 5 points in the London Chess Classic with a draw against his old adversary Vladimir Kramnik on Sunday. Wesley So, who was already guaranteed of the top spot, finished the event with a draw against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to end with 6 points and win the event.

From Chessbase.com:

Anand v Kramnik -

Both Anand and Kramnik know each other very well. According to his repertoire, there was not much to do for the Russian with Black. In accordance with Garry Kasparov’s declaration “It’s up to White to create complications”, all what Kramnik could do was offer some imbalances with going for a middlegame with hanging pawns. Anand was ready for the encounter and a dynamic balance wasn’t to be disturbed by unnecessary risks. Both players were ready to play for three results, but in fact an early repetition was the logical outcome.

Vladimir Kramnik said that he wasn’t too content with the outcome of the tournament. Playing such a tournament isn’t only about avoiding mistakes, he said. It’s also about picking up your chances, and that he failed to excel in the fifth round against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

So v Vachier-Lagrave -

The winner of this year’s Grand Chess Tour from the U.S. only needed a draw to secure first place (given the fact, Caruana wouldn’t win his game against Giri) and he didn’t go for the throat of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, whose style is ready for challenges like this and who loves to counterattack. So showed his respect and chose a quite English set-up with White. The Frenchman tried to unbalance the game by trying to set up a Maroczy bind system with colours reversed with Black, but So ended his hopes by striking with a late, but timely 6. d2-d4. The occurring mess fizzled out peacefully soon thereafter. Neither White nor Black were in real danger in this last encounter. Draw it was, congratulations to the Winner of the tournament and Grand Chess tour. All in all both repeated the same line they played in Leuven. Vachier-Lagrave deviated, but So was well prepared. The game finished within the first hour.

Read the full report here

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