14 June, 2017
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand's hunt for an elusive victory continued as he played out a draw with American Wesley So in the fifth round of the Altibox Norway chess tournament, here on Monday.
Anand moved up to 2.5 points out of a possible six and two white games out of the remaining three rounds might just help him recover more.
On a day when Levon Aronian stunned Vladimir Kramnik in 34 moves of Queen's Gambit Declined to join Hikaru Nakamura in the lead at four points, three other boards ended with honours even.
With 4 points the Armenian GM now ties for first place with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States. Giri, Vachier, Caruana and Wesley are on 2.5 points, a half point ahead of Vachier and Karjakin. In English Opening, Anand got a good hold of the position and gradually asserted himself.
The Italian-turned-American was under severe pressure and that proved decisive as Anand strategically outplayed his ranked rival.
Aronian had drawn the game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the previous round.
This is published unedited from the PTI feed.