Anand finishes joint third, Negi joint second

Viswanathan Anand split points with Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the 13th and final round to share the third spot in Group A at the end of the Corus International Chess tournament on Monday.

World champion Viswanathan Anand split points with Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the 13th and final round to share the third spot in Group A at the end of the Corus International Chess tournament on Monday.

HT Image

Grandmaster Levoin Aronian of Armenia and Magnus Carlsen of Norway shared top honours in the category-20 event after drawing their games against Judit Polgar of Hungary and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan respectively.

Both Carlsen and Aronian ended with 8 points out of a possible 13 and Anand finished a half point behind on 7.5 along with Radjabov. Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Peter Leko of Hungary finished tied fifth on seven points apiece.

Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi spurned down his drawing alternatives and went down to 15-year-old Fabiano Crauana of Italy in the final round of Group C.

While Caruana won the 13-round event with a massive 10 points, Negi ended joint second along with Dimitry Reinderman of Holland on 8 points.

It was a stupendous effort from Movsesian who ended on 9.5 points in all, a full point clear of nearest rivals Nigel Short of England and Etienne Bacrot of France.

Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out a safe draw with Bacrot in the final round to finish clear fourth on 7.5 points.