World champion Viswanathan Anand ended the winless draught by defeating Grandmaster Gawain Jones of England in the fifth round of London Chess Classic.
Under pressure to score a victory, Anand outclassed Jones and finally recorded a win after 17 Classical Chess games.
Magnus Carlsen of Norway continued with his top form to beat Michael Adams of England. Vladimir Kramnik accounted for Luke Mcshane to complete the English rout in the fifth round while American Hikaru Nakamura coasted to a win against the world’s best woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary.
The victory took Carlsen to an astonishing thirteen points from four games in the soccer-like scoring system in place here. Kramnik remains on the toes of the leader with eleven points in his kitty and the rest of the field is now far behind.
For the record, Hikaru Nakamura holds the third spot on eight points and is followed by Michael Adams. Anand jumped to sole fifth on six points, two clear of Levon Aronian of Armenia. Gawain Jones, on two points, holds the seventh spot, while Polgar and McShane are at the bottom of the standings with just one point in their bag.
Surprisingly, Jones decided to give Anand a taste of his own medicine. The Samisch system, the Grunfeld defence has been deeply analysed by the world champion for the World Championship match against Gelfand earlier this year and Jones chose the same as white.
Anand went for a complicated variation and Jones was at sea right from the early stages of middle game. The Indian ace had no troubles eating the material that came his way and by move 20 everything was in control. Jones resigned after 29 moves.
