Viswanathan Anand held to a draw at Bilbao Masters

Viswanathan Anand needs a win to finish second

Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand had to settle for a draw against Wesley So in the fifth round of the Bilbao Masters Final in Spain, reports Times of India. Anand suffered a shocking defeat to Dutch Grandmaster Anand Giri in the previous round, which means the Indian will not retain his title.

Anand, playing white, started with his pawn in an English opening, and achieved the complexities he sought through So’s symmetrical arrangement. The match heated up at the halfway mark as Anand tried to occupy as much space as possible but his advance was neutralized by So’s knights.

The Indian castled his king and rook in the 22^nd move, but So’s defences were sufficient. Both their queens were out of the picture by the 29^th move and only pawns and rooks remained. The rooks were soon eliminated and both players promoted queens in place, which they repeated as the game dragged on.

The Philippines-born American was at a disadvantage, but had just enough wriggle space to avoid being trapped. The rooks soon disappeared and both Grandmasters agreed to a draw after 58 moves. Anand needed a win at all costs to ensure title contention and poured all his efforts into an aggressive gameplan but was held off by So.

But theirs wasn’t the only draw of the day as the other match between Vishy’s vanquisher, Anand Giri and Liren Ding of China also ended in the same fashion. Giri and So are in the lead with seven points apiece and Anand and Ding trail, with four points each.

So and Giri will face off to decide the new champion of the tournament, and only a victory for Anand will ensure second place for him. Wesley So broke current World Champion Magnus Carlsen’s record in 2008 by becoming the youngest player to pass 2600 Elo rating points, a record which has since been surpassed by Chinese prodigy Wei Yi.