Former world champion Viswanathan Anand’s bad form continued, as he could only finish at the 22nd spot in the World Blitz Chess championship, which concluded in Germany on Thursday.
Anand’s final day was marred by draws, and the silver lining for the Indian was the fact that he did not lose a single game on the last day that had 10 games. After finishing day one on a disappointing note with just 6.5 points out of 11, Anand got the same points, getting seven draws and three victories on the final day.
The five-time world champion will take part in the Bilbao Final Masters as the defending champion later this month at Bilbao in Spain. Grandmaster P Harikrishna, who came here straight after winning the Poker Masters tournament in Isle of Man, ended as the second best scorer amongst Indians on 12 points, half point ahead of Krishnan Sasikiran.
Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk of Russia emerged as the deserving winner finishing with a flourish. Grischuk scored eight points out of the last nine rounds.The Russian scored an impressive 15.5 points from his 21 rounds, losing three, drawing five and winning the remaining 13 games.
World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway could not keep the momentum going on the final day of the event and his 14 points were good for the 6th spot only.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)