Anand Finished Fifth
By Arvind Aaron

Viswanathan Anand completed his engagements in the Corus Chess Tournament on January 28 by finishing fifth in the super category 14-player all-play-all.

Three players, Levon Aronian (Arm), Veselin Topalov (Bul) and Teimour Radjabov (Aze) tied for the first place with 8.5/13 after an exciting and closely fought contest.

Parimarjan Negi of Delhi finished fourth in the Grand Master Group C with 7.5/13. This section was won my experienced Michal Krasenkow of Poland with 10.5/13. This winter festival which took place at De Moriaan in the sea side town of Wijk aan Zee attracts hundreds of players for the scores of sections and it is easily the biggest chess festival in Europe. It also dates back to the pre-war days and it is one of the oldest running chess events after Hastings.

World champion Vladimir Kramnik scored a last round win against Loek Van Wely (Ned) to take the clear fourth place. Viswanathan Anand finished clear fifth with 7.5 points from 13 games. It included four wins, seven draws and two defeats, one each to Kramnik and Topalov.

Teimour Radjabov is a clear top performer and his success deserves more credit. This is the first time that he has won or tied for first in such an elite field. Levon Aronian shared the first place at Wijk aan Zee for the first time but he had won the Linares Tournament in 2006 and the World Cup and also helped Armenia to a Olympiad title triumph in the last year. This success should make the claim for a rematch louder for Topalov and his famous trainer Silvio Danailov.

Although disappointing in terms of fifth place for a five-time winner, Anand who has a rating of 2779 played very close to his rating expectancy at 2769. He will now have to wait to gain more Elo points in the Linares tournament starting next month with one cycle at Mexico and the second all-play-all at Linares like last year.

Final placings: 1-3 Aronian, Topalov, Radjabov 8.5/13 each, 4 Kramnik 8, 5 Anand 7.5, 6 Svidler 7, 7-8 Karjakin, Navara 6.5 each...14 players.

home

Published on : 29th Jan, 2007