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Anand beats Bacrot, ends 2nd
World champion Viswanathan Anand pulled off a fine victory over Etienne Bacrot of France to finish second in the Pearl Spring Chess tournament here.
World champion Viswanathan Anand pulled off a fine victory over Etienne Bacrot of France to finish second in the Pearl Spring Chess tournament here.
Anand, whose party in the tournament was spoiled by Bacrot in the fourth round earlier, won a satisfying revenge game to finish on a high after mid-way hiccups in this super tournament between six players.
Magnus Carlsen of Norway played out a hard-fought draw with Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan to win the title with a full point margin.
The Norwegian star finished with seven points in all and regained the number one ranking in the world in unofficial live ratings after losing it to Anand a couple of weeks back.
Anand finished clear second on six points and also stands to gain important ELO rating points from his performance here that will keep him over 2800 rating mark.
The Indian ace was displaying top form till he lost to Bacrot from a drawn ending in the tournament and following that, did not press much with white in the fifth round against Gashimov.
It might have looked a much closer contest if Anand had drawn the game against the Frenchman. Bacrot had to be satisfied with a third-place finish on five points.
