With all the games in the 13th round ending with honours even, American Hikaru Nakamura won his maiden Tata Steel chess title with nine points – half a point ahead of Viswanathan Anand – at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Sunday.
Nakamura drew with China’s Wang Hao to stay ahead of nearest challenger Anand who later signed peace with Russian youngster Ian Nepomniachtchi.
For World number 10 Nakamura, the title was the biggest of his career. He not only performed way beyond his rating of 2751 but also finished ahead of the world’s top four ranked players.
After Nakamura reached an unsurpassable tally after just 22 moves, all the focus was on Anand’s game since a victory for the Indian would have tied him for the title.
Anand, despite a slightly better position with black pieces, could not find a breakthrough and settled for a draw in 37 moves. The runner-up finish was Anand’s sixth in the championship that he has won for a record five times in its 73-year history.
On Saturday, Anand was extremely lucky to escape defeat against Anish Giri. The youngest player in the field committed a blunder on the 49{+t}{+h} move and draw was agreed on the very next turn.
In Group ‘B’ Surya Shekhar Ganguly finished 11th with 5.5 points after a draw with Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem. England’s Luke McShane and Czech Republic’s David Navara tied for the title at 8.5 points.
Lowest-rated Tania Sachdev (6.5 points) performed above expectations in Group ‘C’ to finish joint sixth after losing to Germany’s Sebastian Siebrecht. Tania’s sixth-round victim Italy’s Daniele Vocaturo won the title with 8.5 points.
Final standings: Group ‘A’: Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 9 points), 2. Viswanathan Anand (8.5), 3-4. Magnus Carlsen (Nor), Levon Aronian (Arm) (8 each), 5-6. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) (7.5 each), 7-8. Anish Giri (Ned), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) (6.5 each), 9-10. Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus), Wang Hao (Chn) (6 each), 11-13. Alexander Grischuk (Rus), Erwin L’Ami (Ned), Jan Smeets (4.5 each), 14. Alexei Shirov (Esp, 4).
