Viswanathan Anand holds Magnus Carlsen to a draw to remain in Norway title contention
Viswanathan Anand held Magnus Carlsen to a draw so as to remain in the contention for the top honours in the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. After winning two games in a row with white pieces, Carlsen couldn't do much against Anand this time and the Norwegian was not quite happy with his play.
Through some transpositions, Anand took Carlsen unaware during the beginning of the game. The Sicilian move made Carlsen adopt the defensive strategy, but the damage had already been done and the Norwegian was doubtful of gaining any further advantage in the game.
After reaching an identical pawn formation, Anand played some manoeuvered moves to keep Carlsen in check and 45 moves later, the game came to a draw. Before this Carlsen had achieved victory continuously in two games with the white pieces, but his performance against Anand was not upto the level.
With Ding Liren out of the tournament because of his hip surgery, Anand's half point against the Chinese player was considered null. American star Fabiano Caruana with a rough star had succumbed to Carlsen, but his fortune in the tournament was revived with the game against Sergey Karjakin.
After the fifth round, Carlsen was leading the tournament with 3.5 points, followed by Levon Aronian of Armenia and Karjakin, with one point behind. With two points, Anand, Caruana, Wesley, and Nakamura shared a joint position. Due to the one extra game, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was on the ninth position with two points. The last spot was taken by Maxime-Vachier Lagrave with 1.5 points.
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