Anand to meet Carlsen in Shamkir opener

April 17, 2015 12:47 pm | Updated 12:47 pm IST - Shamkir (Azerbaijan)

Indian chess wizard Viswanathan Anand will meet reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the first round of Shamkir Chess, held in the memory of Vugar Gashimov.

Drawing number ‘4’ in the drawing of lots, Anand will not only have the advantage of playing white in the first game but the Indian ace will also get to play five games in all with white pieces in the 10-player, nine-rounds, round-robin tournament.

While the white pieces is good news, Anand would probably want to forget the last encounter against Carlsen at the Grenke Chess Classic earlier this year. Playing white then, Anand suffered a defeat after attaining a better position first and then missing out on a draw.

With five whites, Anand can look forward to re-enter the 2800 ELO rating club from here. Seeded third, Anand would need six points to break the magic barrier once again. For the records, Anand will play white against Anish Giri of Holland, Wesley So of United States, Michael Adams of England and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.

Besides, the Indian will get black against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan and second seed Fabiano Caruana of Italy.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.