Anand beats Svidler; Negi draws

In the C group being held simultaneously, world’s youngest GM Parimarjan Negi played it out safe against top seed Michal Krasenkow of Poland and earned an easy draw.

Negi is now joint third on 3 points in this section that is led by Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia on 4.5 points.

Meanwhile, there seemed no stopping Teimour Radjabov in Group A as he scored his fourth victory in 5 games and stretched his lead to a full point over nearest rival Anand and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

With 8 rounds still to come in the category 19 tournament between 14 players, Radjabov has 4.5 points in his kitty.

World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Levon Aronian of Armenia are next in the standings on 3 points each, while a pack of four is next in line on 2.5 points.

The day proved simply excellent for Anand as he won with awesome ease. Playing the white side of a Ruy Lopez, Anand went for the topical Anti Marshall and had Svidler under considerable trouble on the king side early in the game.

Not able to find a suitable defense, the Russian blundered in a difficult position and resigned in a hopeless position after just 21 moves. Things could have been different for Radjabov who was lucky to beat David Navara, after the mind game’s new sensation went for unwarranted complications with a piece sacrifice and found his attack ‘not good enough’.