World Champion Viswanathan Anands hopes of winning the Tal Memorial chess championship is all but over after the Indian played out a draw against Hikaru Nakamura in the penultimate round here. With his eighth consecutive draw in as many rounds in the 10-player round robin tournament,Anand has only four points in his kitty out of a possible eight. Anand will face his world championship challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel in the next round. Levon Aronian displayed immaculate technique and great determination to beat Peter Svidler of Russia and surge ahead in the points table with one round still to go. On a day when the other games ended in draw affairs,Aronian took his tally to five points in all,followed by the Russian duo of Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi,Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Magnus Carlsen of Norway,all on 4.5 points. Anand holds sixth spot while Russians Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler are tied seventh with 3.5 points each. Sharing the last spot are Gelfand and Nakamura of United States. Against Nakamura,Anand tried to make his last white count but missed the opportunity. Nakamura employed the Kings Indian defence and faced the Saemisch variation and Indian ace was soon in control after an unwarranted pawn advance by the American on the queen side. Another inaccuracy by the American left the pawn hanging but Anand missed the opportunity and the game ended in a draw after 33 moves. Results (after round 8): V Anand (Ind,4) drew with H Nakamura (USA,3); V Ivanchuk (Ukr,4.5) drew with B Gelfand (Isr,3); M Carlsen (Nor,4.5) drew with I Nepomniachtchi (Rus,4.5); L Aronian (Arm,5) beat P Svidler (Rus,3.5); V Kramnik (Rus,3.5) drew with S Karjakin (Ukr,4.5). Humpy fails to win world title Tirana (Albania): Grandmaster Koneru Humpy settled for a draw in the eighth-round game as defending champion Yifan Hou became the womens world champion by triumphing 5.5-2.5. Yifan,with three victories and five draws,emerged as the worthy winner of the crown. The 17-year-old Chinese had won the last championship in a knockout format and now this victory against a higher-rated Humpy in a match confirms her status as the best woman player on the planet. The eighth game saw Humpy gaining a small advantage but Yifan neutralised it with exchanges at regular intervals. It was not too long before the players reached a rooks and pawns endgame. The game was drawn in a mere 29 moves.
