Anand Draws Nakamura With Black

Anand Draws Nakamura With Black
By Arvind Aaron

Five time former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand drew Hikaru Nakamura of USA in the fifth round of the Norway Chess 2015 Super Category Tournament on Sunday.

Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria who accounted for Ludvig Hammer of Norway widened his lead to a full point and is ahead on 4.5/5. Anand is undefeated on three points from five games. Anand shares the third place with Anish Giri. Four rounds remain to be played. This event concludes on June 26, 2015.

The highlight of round five was world champion Magnus Carlsen’s first victory over Alexander Grischuk.Carlsen and his former trainer Hammer are in the ninth and tenth places.

Anand played the Nimzo-Indian defence as black and obtained a solid position. Nakamura gave one pawn and later a second one and was able to get back one pawn. With an extra pawn on the king side, in a rook ending, with all the pawns on the same side Anand accepted the draw in 45 moves.

Anand takes on Frenchman Vachier-LaGrave in the sixth round with the white pieces. Vachier-LaGrave had won the blitz tournament and is the only player with a fifty percentage score.

The standings after round five: 1 V Topalov (Bul) 4.5/5; 2 H Nakamura (USA) 3.5; 3-4. V Anand (Ind), A Giri (Ned) 3 each; 5 M Vachier-LaGrave (Fra) 2.5; 6-8. F Caruana (Ita), L Aronian (Arm), A Grischuk (Rus) 2 each; 9 M Carlsen (Nor) 1.5; 10 J.L. Hammer (Nor) 1.