Thaindian News

Bilbao (Spain), Sep 10 (IANS) India’s Viswanathan Anand languished at the bottom with yet another draw against Teimour Radjabov of Ukraine, his sixth in seven games, as he was still trying to find his first win at the Grand Slam of Chess here.World champion Anand played a quick draw in 29 moves following a Sicilian Paulsen game, which was a dead draw for quite sometime in the mid-game here Tuesday. However, the opening was interesting where Anand neutralised quickly enough.

In the other games, Magnus Carlsen was finally halted by Vassily Ivanchuk, who beat in 32 moves with black pieces in a Queen’s Gambit Declined. Ivanchuk capitalised on a error by Carlsen and built on it for a good win.

Carlsen, however, continued to lead with 11 points from seven rounds, while Veselin Topalov despite a loss to Lev Aronian was second with 10 points.

Carlsen said he was playing sharp and it was a one-move loss, which probably came on the 13th move.

Aronian recovered from his two losses with a miracle cure of reading Kafka and translated with a win against Topalov.

The Chess Grand Slam Final is being staged in Bilbao and is a six-player double round robin event, one of the strongest in the history of the game.

The scoring system in this tournament is different and experimental. Players get three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for losing a game. For rating purposes the traditional 1-½-0 system will be used.

The prize fund for the event is 400,000 Euros, with the winner receiving 150,000 Euros, the second place 70,000 Euros, etc. with the sixth player getting 30,000 Euros.

Results: Carlsen lost to Ivanchuk; Radjabov drew with Anand; Aronian beat Topalov

Points: Carlsen 11 points; Topalov 10; Aronian 9; Ivanchuk 8; Radjabov and Anand 6 each