Anand Loses To Nakamura

Anand Loses To Nakamura
By Arvind Aaron

The results of Viswanathan Anand are see-sawing. He is in and out of lead. Winning with white and losing with black was becoming increasingly regular for Anand in this FIDE Candidates Tournament in Moscow.

After 12 rounds on March 25, it was a Good Friday for Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Fabiano Caruana of USA. They moved into joint lead with 7/12. The leaders are on plus two score. The anticipated winning score for this contest is 8/14 which is plus two.

The leaders are very nervous. Fortunately, Anand is not. But he is having minor opening problems with black. The good news is that he plays white against Anish Giri of the Netherlands next on Easter Sunday. Saturday is a free day.

Anand hates losing before the free day. That is what happened against Hikaru Nakamura in the English opening game. Nakamura sacrificed a piece and won after Anand returned the material. After 26 black resigned with his rook and king side widely exposed.

Except Topalov and Nakamura, rest of the six players have theoretical chances of winning the 8-player event. Anand faces Giri with white and then black with Svidler. Giri has not lost a game, having drawn all his 12 encounters.

The results (round 12): H Nakamura (USA 5.5) bt V Anand (Ind, 6.5); P Svidler (Rus, 6) drew with A Giri (Ned, 6); S Karjakin (Rus, 7) bt V Topalov (Bul, 4); F Caruana (USA, 7) drew L Aronian (Arm, 6).