Anand draws with Navara

Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands:

Viswanathan Anand drew with David Navara of Czech Republic to end his campaign on 7.5 points for a fifth place finish in the Group 'A' of Corus International chess tournament here. Grandmaster Levon Aronian of Armenia, top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan jointly won the Category-19 event on 8.5 points apiece. Of the three, Radjabov played it safe against Topalov in the final round while Aronian came up with yet another spirited show to outclass local hope Sergei Tiviakov. Five times winner Anand settled for fifth spot this time as World champion Vladimir Kramnik cruised past Dutchman Loek Van Wely to go a half point clear of the Indian. Kramnik was clear fourth on 8 points. Negi in positive closing In the Group 'C', World's youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi ended on a positive note with a sparkling victory over Chinese wonder-girl Hou Yifan. Finishing on 7.5 points in all, Negi justified his fourth seeding in the event, ending fourth in this competitive field. It was rather a quirk of fate that stopped International Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia from winning the title. Leading from day one when he defeated hot favourite Michal Krasenkow of Poland, the young Russian finally ran out of steam against IM Nadezhda Kosintseva and lost with his white pieces. The Group 'C' was won by Krasenkow who crashed through the defenses of Zhaoqin Peng in his final round game to 10.5 points in all. Nepomniachtchi finished second on 10 points and a distant third was Emanuel Berg of Sweden on 8 points.