Anand to meet Carlsen with white

Viswanathan Anand’s dazzling game is the talk of the chess world after his smashing fourth round victory over World No.2 Levon Aronian of Armenia at Wijk aan Zee.

Two victories and two draws have zoomed Anand to a rating performance of 2963. In the fifth round, Anand plays World No.1 ranked Magnus Carlsen.

Anand, Carlsen, Karjakin are leading this Group A, Tata Steel Grand Master tournament with three points from four games. It is a 14-player all-play-all and nine rounds remain to be played.

Free day (Wednesday) in Wijk aan Zee is normally used by players to eat out in nearby Beverwijk, a 10-minute bus ride from Wijk aan Zee. Wijk aan Zee has a nice beach but is chilly at -10C and this place is popular only in summer months.

Players also get themselves ready for the next games and taken a review of the past games. Anand plays white against Carlsen and Harikrishna plays white against Van Wely.

After this kind of a showing by Anand with the black pieces, his coming opponents would love to move to king pawn! Else, facing another Semi-Slav would mean disaster as Anand would have more unused ammunition left from the Gelfand match.

Standings: 1-3. Anand, Carlsen, Karjakin 3/4 each; 4-9. Harikrishna, Nakamura, Caruana, Leko, Wang Hao, Wan Wely 2 each; 10-13. Aronian, Anish Giri, L’Ami, I Sokolov 1.5 each; 14 Hou Yifan 1.