Sinquefield Cup chess | Viswanathan Anand registers sixth consecutive draw

Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand who previously finished joint second with Magnus Carlsen at the last year’s Sinquefield Cup chess meet at St.Louis has been having somewhat of a dull outing at the competition this year. Anand recorded victories over Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana last year but has registered six consecutive draws in this year’s showpiece in the United States.

The former world number one drew his match in the sixth round against Fillipino-American player - Wesley So. The opening that Anand faced was similar to the one he endured in the previous round where the Indian ace had uncorked a beautiful game-changing novelty. His opponent played with the same mentality and displayed some changes in the early phase of the game but the Indian had his resources intact and the fourth draw with black pieces was something that Anand did not mind at this stage of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana of the United States raced away to a lead with a convincing victory over Sergey Karjakin of Russia as he set up a seventh-round clash against World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Since Carlsen displaced Anand from world number one position in 2011 from the rating list, Carlsen has remained at the pole position but if he loses to Caruana in the next round, the American will be the new top-ranked chess player on the list.

Caruana was the sole winner on the day as the other four matches ended in draws. Carlsen came back against Alexander Grischuk of Russia as he managed to salvage a point. Hikaru Nakamura of the United States was the other player who missed out on a win as his opponent, Levon Aronian escaped with a draw to be in the joint second spot.

Results after round 6: Wesley So (USA, 2.5) drew with Vishwanathan Anand (2.5); Alexander Grischuk (RUS, 3.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 3.5) Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, 3.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 3); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4) beat Sergey Karjakin (RUS, 1.5); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2) drew with Levon Aronian (ARM, 3.5).