Anand draws with Giri, placed joint 11th after third game

Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands), January 14

Viswanathan Anand played out his second draw in three games, signing peace with Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the third round of the Tata Steel Masters. It was a surprising decision by Anand to agree to a draw proposal by Giri when the Indian GM was in a better position with white pieces. It was a king’s pawn opening by Anand leading to a Berlin Defence by Giri.

Anand faced a new idea as early as on Move 9 and pounced on his opportunity to get a fine position by the 12th move. While Anand had central control and finely deployed forces exerting pressure, Giri was saddled with a passive position looking at a difficult defence. It was on Move 21 that Giri thought he was out of trouble and proposed a draw. Anand thought for some time before eventually accepting the offer.

Playing under the international chess federation (FIDE) flag, Iranian teenager Alireza Firouzja scored his second victory in the tournament, cruising past Vladislav Artemiev of Russia. Firouzja shot into sole lead with 2.5 points out of a possible three and is now followed by Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands and the American trio of Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Jeffery Xiong, who all have two points each.

With 10 rounds still to be played in the 14-player round-robin tournament, world champion Magnus Carlsen shares the sixth spot on 1.5 points while Anand is joint 11th with just one point from three games. — PTI