Nice France, March 17: World Champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen and went down 0.5-1.5 in the third round of Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament.Anand lost the blindfold game with white pieces and did not get a chance to recover in the rapid. With this defeat, the Indian slipped in the standings and stands joint sixth in combined, joint fifth in rapid and joint sixth in blindfold.
Alexander Morozevich of Russia and Levon Aronian of Armenia retained the joint first position in the combined standings after settling for a 1-1 draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Gata Kamsky of United States respectively.
While Morozevich signed peace in both games against Radjabov, Aronian and Kamsky shared a win each to reach the tied score.
Morozevich and Aronian took their tally to four points apiece and are now followed by Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Carlsen who all have 3.5 points.
Anand shares the next spot along with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine and Peter Leko of Hungary on three points and this bunch is a half point clear of Radjabov and Kamsky.
With eight rounds still to come, Wang Yue of China and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine are currently sharing the last spot with two points apiece.
It`s a three-way lead in the blindfold with Kramnik, Carlsen and Topalov having 2.5 points each while in the rapid Morozevich is in lead on 2.5 points.
After he had beaten Anand in their blindfold game, Carlsen flashed his best smile and said, "Yes, this was a special game for me. I was very focused and it`s nice that I managed to beat him for the first time with black."
The Sicilian Rosslimo by Anand was fairly new for Carlsen. Contrary to what happens in the sharp Sicilian battles, white was castled king side and gained space while Carlsen found a safe haven for his king on the other flank and began to like his position after Anand went for a an erroneous plan in the middle game.
By the 20th move itself Carlsen stood much better and slowly increased his advantage to post a big win in 34 moves.
Bureau Report
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Cookies Setting
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device and the processing of information obtained via those cookies (including about your preferences, device and online activity) by us and our commercial partners to enhance site navigation, personalise ads, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. More information can be found in our Cookies and Privacy Policy. You can amend your cookie settings to reject non-essential cookies by clicking Cookie Settings below.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work or you may not be able to login.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we may not know when you have visited our site, and may not be able to monitor its performance.