Parimarjan Negi’s search for his first victory in the 72nd Corus chess tournament ended with a brilliant victory after Viswanathan Anand settled for his fifth draw in as many rounds at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Thursday.
In group ‘A’, where Spain’s Alexei Shirov maintained his astonishing all-win record at the expense of local favourite Leok van Wely,
Anand played with black pieces against Hungary’s Peter Leko and drew the Ruy Lopez game in 28 moves.
In Group ‘B’, after P. Hari Krishna and Filipino teenager Wesley So fought to the finish for a 44-move draw, Negi was simply brilliant during his annihilation of USA’s Varuzhan Akobian. In this Gruenfeld game, the Indian teenager gained couple of pawns but lost a piece in the middle game. Undeterred, Negi mounted the pressure with the help of rook and bishop and won back the minor piece to hold a two-pawn advantage. Akobian resigned in a hopeless position after 47 moves.
In Group ‘C’, Abhijeet Gupta drew with Dutch lad Benjamin Bok but Soumya Swaminathan lost to Mariya Muzychuk.
Group ‘A’: Peter Leko (Hun, 2) drew with Viswanathan Anand (2.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 0.5) lost to Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3); Sergey Tiviakov (Ned, 2) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 2.5); Loek van Wely (Ned, 1) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp, 5); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 3.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 1.5) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 3.5); Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 2) drew with Leinier Perez Dominguez (Cub, 2.5).
Group ‘B’: Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 1) lost to Parimarjan Negi (3); Wesley So (Phi, 2.5) drew with P. Hari Krishna (3); Anish Giri (Ned, 4) bt Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 1.5); Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 2) drew with Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 1.5); Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 3) bt Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 2); Tomi Nyback (Fin, 2.5) drew with Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 3); David Howell (Eng, 3.5) bt Ni Hua (Chn, 3).
Group ‘C’: Benjamin Bok (Ned, 2) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (3); Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 2) bt Soumya Swaminathan (0.5); Li Chao (Chn, 4) drew with Robin van Kampen (Ned, 2.5); Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 2.5) lost to Ray Robson (USA, 4.5); Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 2) drew with Robin Swinkels (Ned, 3); Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 3.5) bt Nils Grandelius (Swe, 1.5); Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 1) drew with Kietils Lie (Nor, 3).
