World champion Viswanathan Anand ended his campaign with an easy draw against Sergey Karjaikin of Russia in the ninth and final round of the Tal Memorial chess tournament that concluded here.
Boris Gelfand of Israel, who had lost to Anand in the last world championship match, deservingly won the tournament after signing peace with Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.
Gelfand finished with six points in all and remained a half point ahead of World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway (5.5) following a last round draw with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.
Mamedyarov and Dmitry Andreikin of Russia and Fabiano Caruana of Italy finished tied third on five points, half a point ahead of Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, who succumbed to his third straight loss after losing the final game to Alexander Morozevich of Russia. Karjakin finished seventh on four points while Anand and Morozevich were tied for the eighth spot on 3.5 points each.
Kramnik ended a disappointing last on just three points. The last round was devoid of much excitement for obvious reasons. Kramnik just wanted to finish the tournament and did not do much with white against Gelfand who secured an easy draw.
With black, Anand too did not have to sweat much against Karjakin out of a Sicilian Najdorf that was drawn early.
Carlsen wanted to catch up with Gelfand at the top but he was lucky to come out unscathed against Mamedyarov who played an enterprising game with white. Carlsen had to solve some tactical problems in the middle game and technical problems in the endgame to split the point.
The results:
Final round: Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 4) drew with V. Anand (Ind, 3.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 6); Shakhriyayr Mamedyarov (Aze, 5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5.5); Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 5) drew with Dmitry Andreikin (Rus, 5); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 4.5) lost to Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 3.5).
