Viswanathan Anand finishes joint-second in Isle of Man Championship
Viswanathan Anand finished joint second in the Isle of Man Chess Championship after defeating Hou Yifan of China in the final round while reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen secured the title after drawing with Hikaru Nakamura.
other sports Updated: Oct 02, 2017 13:41 IST
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand capped his impressive run with another victory over Chinese grandmaster Hou Yifan in the ninth and final round to sign off joint second at the Isle Of Man Chess Championship.
Anand took 53 moves to overpower Yifan to finish with 7 points. He shared the second spot with America’s Hikaru Nakamura. The result is good news for Anand after a disappointing show in the Chess World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia where he was knocked out in the second round by Anton Kovalyov.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen won the title with 7.5 points after a short draw against Nakamura to pocket a cheque of 50,000 pounds.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Swapnil S Dhopade finished at the joint third position at 6.5 points after playing out draws against Hungarian Richard Rapport and Ukraine’s Pavel Eljanov respectively.
Among other Indians, Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan ended at the joint 13th spot at six points after securing a draw with Vallejo Pons Francisco. SP Sethuraman drew with compatriot Swayams Mishra to finish at 5 points at the 48th place.
Harika Dronavalli and Adhiban Bhaskaran signed off with wins over Evgeny Degtiarev and Nino Batsiashvili respectively. Young prodigy R Praggnanandhaa also ended his campaign with a victory over Balint Vilmos.
