Anand beats Adams, in second spot

Viswanathan Anand crashed through the defences of Michael Adams of England to jump to the second spot in the Shamkir Chess 2015 tournament here on Friday.

It was sheer power and simplicity from Anand that saw him cruise to his second win in the strongest tournament of the year and the Indian ace can now train his sight to catch world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the remaining two rounds.

Meanwhile, Carlsen defeated Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to take his tally up to 5.5 points out of a possible seven. Fabiano Caruana of Italy was the other big winner of the day, beating erstwhile leader Wesley So of USA.

The results (seventh round): V. Anand (Ind, 4.5) bt Michael Adams (Eng, 2); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 3) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 3); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5.5) bt Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2.5); Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 4) bt Wesley So (USA, 4); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 3.5) drew with Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 3).