India's Viswanathan Anand suffered his second consecutive loss, going down to world No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the second round of the USD 150,000 chess24 Legends of Chess online tournament. The former world champion had kept the Norwegian ace in check in three games of the best-of-four contest before slipping 1.5-2.5 by in the final game late on Wednesday. The Indian ace is making his maiden appearance on the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. He had gone down by a similar margin to Russia's Peter Svidler in the opening round. He takes on another former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in the third round.
Anand is back in action after having last participated in the Online Nations Cup in May.
Carlsen is in joint lead with veteran Israeli Boris Gelfand and Svidler. All of them have six points after two victories each.
Anish Giri got off the mark with a win over Vladimir Kramnik, while world No.3 Ding Liren's struggles continued as the Chinese lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.
All the round-robin games are best-of-four game contests. Legends of Chess is a unique event where Carlsen, Liren, Nepomniachtchi and Giri, semifinalists at the Chessable Masters (part of the Magnus Carlsen Tour), received an automatic invite.
They are up against six legends aged 40-52, who have been at the top of world chess at various points in their career.
The tournament is part of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. The winner of this event will qualify for the USD 300,000 Grand Final scheduled from August 9 to 20.
Results:
Round 2: Ian Nepominiachtchi beat Ding Liren 2.5-1.5; Magnus Carlsen beat Viswanathan Anand 2.5-1.5; Peter Svidler beat Peter Leko 2.5-1.5; Boris Gelfand beat Vasyl Ivanchuk 2.5-1.5; Anish Giri beat Vladimir Kramnik 2.5-1.5.