CHENNAI: Viswanathan Anand (in pic) shrugged off his early exit from the World Cup, finishing joint second with Hikaru Nakamura (both 7/9) at the Isle of Man International Open on Sunday. World champion Magnus Carlsen (7.5) won his first classical tournament of the year. Remaining unbeaten, he was hardly troubled and sealed the title with a + 6 score.
Victory over women’s World No 1 Hou Yifan in the final round helped Anand end the tournament on a high note. His other striking victory came against SP Sethuraman in the sixth round. He had a performance rating of 2806 and gained 1.6 rating points.
“Solid performance by Anand after World Cup exit in the second round,” reflected India No 2 Pentala Harikrishna. India GM Sundararajan Kidambi felt the same, “Great performance by Anand.’’
Carlsen made amends for his third round exit at the World Cup, winning game after game on his way to clinching his second Open tournament after the Qatar Masters in 2015. He outwitted opponents by deploying unconventional openings.
The way he demolished Fabiano Caruana and Pavel Eljanov, two of the top-ranked players, validated the fact that when on song, he is unstoppable. “Carlsen played unusual openings and outplayed opponents. He won convincingly,” said Harikrishna.
India No 3 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (6.5) continued his good run, sharing the fourth spot with eight other players. One of the highlights of his performance was the way he effortlessly held Carlsen in the seventh round. He is yet to lose a game in his last 15 classical encounters. Vidit has made a big leap in the last 12 months, leapfrogging to world No 34 (2721) in the live ratings.
Swapnil Dhopade and Harsha Bharathakoti were the other Indians to make a mark. It was Dhopade’s best performance, sharing fourth spot with 6.5 points. National junior champion Bharathakoti made a GM norm, defeating strong GMs like B Adhiban and Varuzhan Akobian.
Top 12: 1. M Carlsen (Nor) 7.5. 2-3: V Anand (Ind), H Nakamura (USA) 7. 4-12: V Kramnik (Rus), F Caruana (USA), M Adams (Eng), P Eljanov (Ukr), Vidit Gujrathi (Ind), E Sutovsky (Isr), R Rapport (Hun), A Shirov (Lat), S Dhopade (Ind) 6.5.