World champion Viswanathan Anand remains a contender for the title despite being 1.5 points behind the leader as he will take on the lowest-ranked players in the remaining two rounds of the Norway chess 2013 super tournament here.
Anand started with two draws and a fine victory against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.
A loss in the fourth round pulled him back a little but then tormenting tournament leader Sergey Karjakin of Russia and following that up with a crushing win against Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan has put the Indian in the joint third spot.
For the record, Karjakin seems far away from Anand at 5.5 points.
Round eight pairings: V. Anand (Ind, 4) vs Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor, 1.5); Peter Svidler (Rus, 3.5) vs Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 5.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5) vs Wang Hao (Chn, 2.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 3) vs Levon Aronian (Arm, 4); Teimoru Radjabov (Aze, 2.5) vs Peter Svidler (Rus, 3.5).
