Anand in freefall

Anand opted for the Ruy Lopez with white,an opening that has already seen him win and lose once each in the tournament. Nakamura replied with the Smyslov defence,an opening popular in the 80s but not so much in use now. Anand came out of the opening with a small advantage,with a pawn majority in the center having simultaneously weakened Nakamura’s queen side pawns. Black’s doubled pawn on d6 was about to come under pressure but Nakamura had retained his bishop pair meaning the advantage,at least at that early stage (by around move 12),was not concrete.

Soon though,Anand began to misplay the position. A central pawn push allowed black to consolidate his queen side pawn structure while also giving his fianchetto-ed dark square bishop a good sighter along the g8-a1 diagonal. Black had solved all his problem out of the opening and the position was equal at this stage.

Advantage slips

However,Anand continued to let his hold on the game slip. The attempt to exchange his knight for the bishop (denying Nakamura the pair) left him with an exposed king and shattered king side pawns. Nakamura avoided getting into sharper lines,and quickly traded down into a pawn and knight endgame which would have been tricky to defend even without accounting for the inaccuracies he committed later on. Garry Kasparov,commenting on the game in Moscow,said the game had turned Nakamura’s way as early as in the 18th move.

The American converted his advantage without breaking much sweat to move into sole lead. Nakamura has traditionally troubled Anand,and Wednesday’s win gave the American an overwhelming head-to-head record against the Indian. In the last 18 months,Nakamura has beaten him thrice and has never once fallen to a defeat. Surprisingly,all his wins have come with black pieces.

The Anand-Nakmura game proved to be the only decisive game of the round,as draws dominated elsewhere. Carlsen settled for a quick draw against Boris Gelfand which left the Israeli in shared-second. The Norwegian is in the third-fourth spot,along with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Anand brought up the rear,along with Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Morozevich. Thursday is a rest day.

Results,round five:Viswanathan Anand lost to Hikaru Nakamura,Dmitry Andreikin drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov,Fabiano Caruana drew with Vladimir Kramnik,Boris Gelfand drew with Magnus Carlsen,Alexander Morozevich drew with Sergey Karjakin.

Rankings,after round five: 1. Hikaru Nakamura (4.5 pts); 2. Boris Gelfand (4); 3-4. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov,Magnus Carlsen; 5-7. Dmitry Andreikin,Fabiano Caruana,Sergey Karjakin; 8-10. Viswanathan Anand,Vladimir Kramnik,Alexander Morozevich.