World Rapid Chess Championships 2015: Floundering Vishwanathan Anand all but out of the tournament

Anand is in a sticky spot

After a solid start on day one, former World Champion Vishwanathan Anand is stumbling on day 2 of the World Rapid Chess Championships, in a report from Times of India. Anand kicked off his campaign beating Russia's Kateryna Lagno and USA's Alexander Onischuk, before settling for a draw against A R Salem Saleh of UAE. The next two rounds were losing efforts to Russians Daniil Dubov and Pavel Ponktarov. The Indian chess wizard ended the day on 2.5 points.

Day two began in similar fashion with emphatic victories over Russian Vladimir Belov and Ukrainian Andrei Volokitin before he was stopped in his tracks by Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan in the eighth round. He was pushed further back by Russia’s Denis Khismatullin in the ninth round. Anand finished with a meager 5.5 points.

Five rounds remain in the competition and Anand needs to put in a superhuman effort to score big on the last day, avoid losses and leave his fate to statistics to make the podium. Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi proved a dark horse on day one, with wins over higher-ranked Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan and Andrei Volokitin of Ukrain. But the highlight of the day was his upset of second-seeded Russian Alexander Grischuk.

The 20-year-old from Nashik also managed two hard-fought draws against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hungarian Peter Leko on day one. Gujrathi couldn’t continue his hot streak on day two, as he added just 1.5 points to his previous score of 4 points to match Anand. The other Indians at the event include:

– P Adhiban, who leads the pack with six points

– Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Anand’s second in three World Championships), who beat former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in round 8 but lost to Russian Ernesto Inarkiev and Hungarian Zoltan Almasi in rounds 9 and 10 respectively.

– Krishnan Sasikiran who is on 5.5 points after scoring three points on day two.

– SP Sethuraman, who is struggling with 3.5 points

Sergey Karjakin of Russian, who lead at the end of day one with 4.5 points, suffered heavy setbacks on day two, managing just two points in five games. Defending champion Magnus Carlsen, who trailed Karjakin at the end of day one, won three out of five and dew two. The Norwegian tops the table along with Belarus’ Sergei Zhigalko, both of whom have eight points each.