World champion and five-time winner Viswanathan Anand finished fourth in the 72nd Corus chess tournament after playing out a 39-move draw with Dutchman Leok van Wely in the 13th and final round at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Sunday.
There was no change in the leading overnight standings after six games out of seven games on the final day ended with honours even. USA’s Hikaru Nakamura was searching for a win against local Sergey Tiviakov after 74 moves and a share of the fourth place with Anand at 7.5 points.
Top seed Magnus Carlsen took the title with 8.5 points, ahead of the duo of Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik and Spain’s Alexei Shirov at eight.
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Anand was the only unbeaten player in the tough 14-player field.
In Group ‘B’, 12th seeded wonder-kid Anish Giri, representing the Netherlands, took the title with nine points after a 21-move draw with ninth seed Parimarjan Negi. After a draw with Tomy Nyback, third seed P. Hari Krishna shared the sixth place with Negi at 6.5 points.
In Group ‘C’, Abhijeet Gupta justified his second seeding by beating third seed Ray Robson in the final round. Top seeded Chinese Li Chao, who ensured the title with a round to spare, signed off with a victory to tally 10 points. World junior girls’ champion Soumya Swaminathan finished last in the 14-player field with three points.
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The results (13th round, Indians unless stated):
Group ‘A’: Loek van Wely (Ned, 5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (7.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 8.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 5.5); Vassily Kramnik (Rus, 8) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 7); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 8) drew with Leinier Dominguez (Cub, 6.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 7) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 6.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 5) drew with Jan Smeets (Ned, 4.5);
Group ‘B’: Parimarjan Negi (6.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 9); P. Hari Krishna (6.5) drew with Tomi Nyback (Fin, 5); Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 8.5) bt Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 7.5); Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 5) drew with Ni Hua (Chn, 8); Wesley So (Phi, 7.5) drew with Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 5.5); Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 4.5) bt David Howell (Eng, 6); Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rou, 5.5) drew with Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 6).
Group ‘C’: Abhijeet Gupta (8.5) bt Ray Robson (USA, 7.5); Li Chao (Chn, 10) bt Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 5); Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 8) bt Soumya Swaminathan (3); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 8) bt Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 6); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 6) lost to Robin Swinkels (Ned, 7.5); Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 3) drew with Benjamin Bok (Ned, 7); Kjetil Lie (Nor, 5.5) lost to Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 6).