Vishwanathan Anand handed shock defeat by Anish Giri at Bilbao Masters

A careless error cost defending champion Vishwanathan Anand the match against Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri in round four of the Bilbao Masters Final in Bilbao, Spain. The Indian, whose form is circumspect of late after drawing his first three matches, made a shortsighted blunder in this match which Giri pounced on.

Giri, playing white, started with the in-vogue English opening and Anand made a rookie mistake on move 11 when he misplaced his Bishop. Giri capitalized on it quickly and put Vishy between a rock and a hard place, forcing him to choose between losing a pawn or wait for an opening.

Anand tried to come back into the game when he sacrificed his queen for two pieces on move 17, but it would prove ineffective. The match would end at move 37, when the clock ran out. This is Vishwanathan Anand’s first loss to Giri in Classical Chess, reports The Hindu.

With the win, Giri has six points and drew level with the overnight leader, American Wesley So. The tournament’s scoring system awards three points for a victory and one for a draw.Anand has two games remaining, one against So where he will play white and one against China’s Liren Ding, with whom he currently shares the third spot.