Viswanathan Anand finishes fifth with 7.5 pts Monday, January 29, 2007 10:48 [IST]
Wijk Aan Zee: Viswanathan Anand drew with David Navara of Czech Republic
to end his campaign on 7.5 points for a fifth place finish in the Group 'A' of
Corus International chess tournament here.
Grandmaster Levon Aronian of Armenia,
top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria
and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan
jointly won the Category-19 event on 8.5 points apiece.
Of the three, Radjabov played it safe against Topalov in the final round while
Aronian came up with yet another spirited show to outclass local hope Sergei
Tiviakov.
Five times winner Anand settled for fifth spot this time as World champion
Vladimir Kramnik cruised past Dutchman Loek Van Wely to go a half point clear
of the Indian. Kramnik was clear fourth on 8 points.
In the Group 'C', World's youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi ended on a
positive note with a sparkling victory over Chinese wonder-girl Hou Yifan.
Finishing on 7.5 points in all, Negi justified his fourth seeding in the event,
ending fourth in this competitive field.
It was rather a quirk of fate that stopped International Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia
from winning the title.
Leading from day one
when he defeated hot favourite Michal Krasenkow of Poland, the young Russian finally
ran out of steam against IM Nadezhda Kosintseva and lost with his white pieces.
The Group 'C' was won by Krasenkow who crashed through the defenses of Zhaoqin
Peng in his final round game to 10.5 points in all.
Nepomniachtchi finished second on 10 points and a distant third was Emanuel
Berg of Sweden
on 8 points. |