Viswanathan Anand wins third straight game to maintain top-3 position in Norway Open
A file image of Anand.
|(Twitter)
Viswanathan Anand of India resumed his winning streak in the Classical portion of the Norway Chess tournament on Friday, defeating Wang Hao of China in the third round to maintain his lead in the standings. After an ordinary classical match was deadlocked after 39 moves, Anand won the Armageddon.
In Armageddon, the former world champion defeated Hao in 44 moves, bringing his total to 7.5 points. On 6 points, he is trailed by American Wesley So and world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen (5.5). After defeating Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in the first two rounds, the Indian star has won the Classical division for the third time in a row.
In the rest of the matches that were conducted, Vachier-Lagrave overcame Norwegian Aryan Tari, Anish Giri drew the traditional and Armageddon games with So, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat Topalov in sudden death. In the current Norway Chess tournament, if the classical game ends in a draw, the participants participate in Armageddon.
Meanwhile, Anand is once again back in the top-10 rankings, after getting a few solid results in the last few tournaments. As per the latest rankings, he is in the ninth spot, while there is no other Indian in the top-10, in the world.
