Croatia Grand Chess Tour | Viswanathan Anand finishes 11th with nine draws
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With only 4.5 points from 11 rounds, Viswanathan Anand finished 11th out of 12 players at the Croatia Grand Chess Tour, being held nine times, and defeated twice. World number one Magnus Carlsen took home the title with eight points, with Wesley So finishing second with seven points.
Facing bottom-placed Hikaru Nakamura of USA, with 3.5 points, Anand failed to capitalise on the opportunity to finish with at least one win to his name in the tournament. Instead, he was held to a draw, his ninth in the elven rounds of the tournament.Â
The Indian Grandmaster lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi in the opening round. However, he recovered well to earn a draw against the World no.1 Carlsen in the very next round. But, a failure to carry the momentum forward saw Anand drawing all the following rounds. The misery got worse when he lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the ninth round, and finished with two more draws in the 10th and 11th.Â
Magnus Carlsen continued his reign at the top of the chess world picking up four wins in the tournament to go home with the prize money of 90,000 USD. Wesley So, of the USA, clinched the second spot, winning 60,000 USD. Levon Aronian, Fabian Caruana made up the other spots in the top four. Anand’s opening round nemesis Nepomniachtchi finished fifth.
