Chess.com Isle of Man 01-03: Anand and Vidit lead the Indian Charge

Photos: Chess.com/ Maria Emelianova

Game analysis by Shailesh Dravid

2017 Chess.com Isle of Man started off with the highest number of Indian contingent- thirty! Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand is heading the Indian charge in this 9-day event starting from September 23rd to October 1st, 2017.

Random Pairings in the first round saw an interesting matchup with GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Vladimir Kramnik-the game ended in former’s favour.

For Indian whiz, GM Viswanathan Anand’s selection of IM Marc Esserman was deemed as a ‘normal’ pairing. The two have a brief history — Esserman played his favorite Smith-Morra Gambit to draw Anand at Gibraltar, 2016.
Anand told Chess.com that he briefly considered playing it back at Esserman as White today, but that thought only lasted about five seconds. Instead, more common Sicilian themes still produced a win for the Indian.

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Round 4 Pairings