TIL Desk Sports/ Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand’s quest for a record sixth title suffered a setback as he slumped to a shock defeat against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the seventh round of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament, here.
Having done quite well so far, Anand went for unwarranted complications against Kramnik who was at his best to match his opponent. The Italian opening by the Indian became very complicated when Anand decided to keep his king in the middle of the board and Kramnik showed deep understanding in finding the right manoeuvres.
As it happened in the game, Anand’s king proved to be under more danger than the counterpart and Kramnik skillfully deployed his forces to carve out a fine victory in 36 moves.The loss proved costly as Anand slipped to joint sixth spot from his overnight joint second position.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan stretched his lead to a full point after his third straight victory in the tournament. On the receiving end was Wei Yi of China who was outdone from a Catalan opening where the former played white.
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