Anand wins Baden – Baden Tournament

World champion Viswanathan Anand scored two victories in the last two games to surpass Fabiano Caruana of Italy and win the 1st Grenke Chess Classic at Baden-Baden in Germany on Feb 17, 2013.

It has been a long wait for Anand fans. He had not won a classical contest for some time. Three wins and seven draws helped him win this six player double all-play-all by a half point margin.

Anand, 43, was the oldest competitor and kept his energy for the last two games. Against Naiditch he sacrificed a rook for knight and two pawns and played a great fighting game to win. This fighting spirit was last seen at the tie-break games against Boris Gelfand at Moscow last year.

In the final round, Anand needed Fridman to hold Caruana. Fridman lost a pawn but held Caruana to a draw after a marathon struggle.

Only Anand remained undefeated as the cross table would indicate. The hosts, Germans were left at the bottom with Adams too winning in the end.

Anand played at a huge 2808 rating level. He would need to up his rating as Magnus Carlsen is making speedy progress towards the

gigantic 2900 mark.  Anand, Kramnik and others would play at Zurich in a closed event following this contest. From May 7, Anand will play the strongest chess tournament ever at Norway. Anand is having his busiest year as world champion.

Anand coming from behind and playing catch up with Caruana at the penultimate round and even surpassing in the final round gives

cinematic entertainment value to this contest.

Standings cross table

1 V Anand Ind XX == == == 11 =1 6.5

2 F Caruana Ita == XX =0 1= 11 == 6.0

3 M Adams Eng == =1 XX == 0= == 5.0

4 G Meier Ger == 0= == XX 01 =1 5.0

5 A Naiditch Ger 00 00 1= 10 XX =1 4.0

6 D Fridman Ger =0 == == =0 =0 XX 3.5