World champion Viswanathan Anand crushed his former challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the third round to jump to the joint second spot in the Norway Chess 2013 super tournament here.
Sergey Karjakin of Russia scored his third straight victory at the expense of Wang Hao of China to lead the table with three points. Anand and Levon Aronian follow him, a full point behind.
Teimoru Radjabov of Azerbaijan finally won a game, disposing the challenge of local hopeful Jon Ludvig Hammer to move to a fifty per cent score.
With six rounds to come in the ten-player tournament, Radjabov shares the fourth spot along with world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Hikaru Nakamura of United States and Russian Peter Svidler on 1.5 points apiece.
Wang Hao and Topalov are sharing the eighth spot on one point each while Hammer is at the bottom, yet to open his account.
The day produced three decisive games and local star Carlsen had to settle for his third straight draw with Nakamura. Russian Svidler too shared the point with Aronian making sure he stayed in the hunt as well.
The results: Third round: V. Anand (2) bt Veselin Topalov (1); Teimour Radjabov (1.5) bt Jon Ludvig Hammer (0); Hikaru Nakamura (1.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (1.5); Sergey Karjakin (3) bt Wang Hao (1); Peter Svidler (1.5) drew with Levon Aronian (2).
