Viswanathan Anand played out his third successive draw, this time against Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in the fifth round of the Sinquefield Cup chess tournament at St. Louis (USA) on Thursday.
Going into the only rest day before action resumes on Saturday, Anand, with 1.5 points, was placed ninth in the 10-player field. Four rounds remain.
World champion Magnus Carlsen outwitted Wesley So in an error-filled game to join Levon Aronian at the top with 3.5 points. Veselin Topalov, who started the round in joint lead with Aronian, tossed away a good start and lost to Fabiano Caruana.
Anand, for once, had a comfortable position and at one stage looked clearly better off with an extra pawn following the opening lines of Sicilian Najdorf. Lagrave defended well and eventually managed to simplify the position to a point that Anand’s one-pawn advantage didn’t look enough to force a decisive result. Draw was agreed after 42 moves.
The results (fifth round): Viswanathan Anand (1.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2.5); Magnus Carlsen (3.5) bt Wesley So (US, 1.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 3) lost to Fabiano Caruana (US, 2); Hikaru Nakamura (US, 2.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 3).
