Anand back in contention after dominating Svidler
©Viswanathan Anand Twitter
Viswanathan Anand fought his way back to contention at the Candidates Tournament with a dominating display against seven-time Russian champion Peter Svidler on Thursday. The Indian No.1 has now moved up to third place in the points table – 0.5 behind joint leaders Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian.
After losing to Karjakin in the fourth round, Anand regained his No.1 Indian ranking with a draw against Hikaru Nakamura on Wednesday. The five-time world champion is now back in contention to win a place in World Chess Championship with a crushing win over Peter Svidler, after league leader Karjakin dropped points against Fabiano Caruana earlier yesterday.
Anand broke Svidler's defence in 24 moves as the Indian made his white-advantage count. After dominating from the start, Anand went for a brilliant King side attack, and the Russian could muster up no counter-move to negate it.
Anand will next face Anish Giri, who is now in fifth position, after a hard-fought win over Veselin Topalov.
Results: Anand Viswanathan 3.5 – 2.5 Peter Svidler; Veselin Topalov 2-3 Anish Giri; Levon Aronian 4-2 Hikaru Nakamura; Fabiano Caruana 3-4 Sergey Karjakin
