Viswanathan Anand Falters on Day 1 of World Rapid Chess Championship
Viswanathan Anand started the day started with wins against Russia's Kateryna Lagno and US' Alexander Onischuk. In the third round, the Indian ace was held to a draw by A R Salem Saleh of UAE. Then he lost the fourth round to Russia's Daniil Dubov while in the fifth another Russian
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand squandered away a good start and could just end Day 1 on a fifty percent score after the end of the fifth round of World rapid chess championship here. (Viswanathan Anand begins as one of the favourites at World Rapid Chess)
Fast improving Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi stole the honours of the opening day of the three-day event after coming out with an inspired performance including a victory over second seed Alexander Grischuk of Russia.
Apart from Grischuk, Gujrathi also accounted for higher rated Grandmasters like Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan and Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine besides getting two hard-fought draws against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hungarian Peter Leko to end the day in tied second spot with four points from five games played thus far.
For Anand the day started with a victory over Russian Grandmaster Kateryna Lagno and Alexander Onischuk of United States. However in the third round, the Indian ace had to find some precise defense to get a draw with A R Salem Saleh of UAE.
Anand lost the fourth round against young Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov while in the fifth another Russian -Pavel Ponktarov - found the Indian on the wrong foot.
With ten rounds still to come not much is lost for Anand but he will need a far better second day to come back in reckoning in this $ 200000 prize money tournament. The early leader is World cup winner Sergey Karjakin of Russian on 4.5 points and he is followed by as many as 16 players a half point behind including defending champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
Among other Indians in the fray, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and B Adhiban are on three points each while Krishnan Sasikiran and S P Sethuraman are alongside Anand, with 2.5 points apiece in their kitty.
Ganguly had a good result to boast off as he held former world champion Vladimir Kramnik to a creditable draw in the fourth round game. Sethuraman started with two losses and now seems on his way back while Sasikiran's has carried on with his start steady start. Adhiban has had three wins and two draws.