Anand Takes Lead In Bilbao

Anand Takes Lead In Bilbao
By Arvind Aaron

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand snatched the lead in the 7th Grand Slam Masters at Bilbao, Spain on Sep 14, 2014. In the four player double all play all, Pons Vallejo of Spain drew Levon Aronian of Armenia with the white pieces. This will be Anand’s last tournament before challenging Carlsen at Sochi in Russia in Nov 2014.

With the white pieces, Anand opened with the queen pawn and faced the king’s Indian defence. Anand castled queen side and won two pawns. Ponomariov, the former world champion from Ukraine promoted a second queen. Anand who had a bishop and knight against the enemy queen, threatened to promote his own pawn that prompted Ponomariov to resign in 61 moves.