Tata Steel Chess India 2018 Winner Is Hikaru Nakamura

Kolkata: World No.2 Hikaru Nakamura of the United States stamped his class on Sunday by winning the Tata Steel Chess India 2018 rapid tournament with six points as reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand lost to local challenger Surya Shekhar Ganguly, here on Sunday.

Star attraction Anand finished seventh with eight draws and a shock defeat in the last round as India's No 2 and World No. 20 Pentala Harikrishna finished second with World No.7 Levon Aronian of Armenia, who was the overnight joint leader with Nakamura, finishing third.

Nakamura, courtesy the win, will take home the trophy and the winner's cheque of $10,000.

"I played online with B Adhiban of India and it gave me a lot of confidence," Nakmura said later.

Highly-rated 14-year old Nihal Sarin, finishing ninth, impressed one and all by putting his idol Anand under a lot of pressure in round eight, the second of the day, and also won a pawn.

But, experience proved to be decisive in the end as Vishy managed to wriggle his way out of his difficulties to get his 8th consecutive draw of the event.

In the last round, Anand played his longtime second and Kolkata based GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly where Surya opted for the solid Caro-Kann defence against Vishy's King pawn opening.

But, the game took an aggressive turn when Surya went for the initiative and started to risk and advance his own pawns against Anand's kingside.

The game was fairly in the balance before, two consecutive mistakes on the 26th and 27th move by Anand gave Surya a huge initiative.

Surya sacrificed his Bishop with Bxg3 on the 31st move destroying Vishy's King's cover.

The attack and the initiative was too strong and Vishy stretched out his hand in resignation on the 37th move.

Anand did not win a single game in the entire event while making eight straight draws and losing the last one to end up with 4 points out of 9 games.

(IANS)

Also Read: Chess Olympiad: Indian Men Defeat Czech Republic, Women Stunned