Chess champion Viswanathan Anand is back in the top 10 spot after defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Round 4 of the European Club Cup. Apart from Anand, current world champion Magnus Carlsen also defeated India’s P Harikrishna to record his second win in a row in the tournament.
It may be important to note that Anand’s two draws earlier had kept him out of the top 10 spots, victory over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov helped him to grab the ninth spot. Notably, earlier, Anand’s two draws saw him drop from the Top 10 spot before he came back with a win against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to move to the ninth position.
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Speaking to reporters after the match, Anand pointed out that while playing against Mamedyarov he noticed Rxa2, after which he decided to enter it and make a couple of moves. The Indian grandmaster decided against moving further as he felt it wasn’t mainline. However, after Mamedyarov made the next move. What could have been a major surprise just helped him win the match, he added.
Admitting that he was shocked after Mamedyarov offered him a draw, Anand said that the draw was offered by his opponent with Nc4, on the 30th match, as all moves were offered a draw. However, Anand decided to go against the draw as he felt he was missing something and decided to play and tried F5.
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Earlier in June, he had defeated Carlsen during the seventh round of the blitz event in Norway Chess to finish fourth. He, however, lost to Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the fourth and ninth rounds to finish with five points in the event. Indian chess ace Viswanathan Anand defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in round seven of the blitz event of the Norway Chess on his way to a fourth-place finish.
He had started off with a win against Aryan Tari of Norway before drawing against So in the second round. He then won his match against Veselin Topalov, before sharing points with Teimur Radjabov.
