Anand in joint lead after securing first win

Stavanger (Norway): Viswanathan Anand came up with an inspired performance to outplay Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and jump to joint lead on 3.5 points after the end of the seventh round of Altibox Norway Chess tournament. The win came after five draws and one battle against Chinese Ding Liren that was declared as a non-played game after the latter withdrew. Anand came up with a surprise weapon by going for the open Spanish and as expected, Vachier-Lagrave chose a double edged continuation that gave Anand enough chances. Although more than 20 years older than the Frenchman, Anand showed why he is still a force to reckon with. The Indian ace simply out-calculated his opponent when it mattered. Anand shares the lead with Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Wesley So of United States. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan played out a draw with Wesley So, while Armenian Levon Aronian signed peace with Sergey Karjakin of Russia. The other game of the day also ended in a draw between Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura.

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Brussels

5 Armenians charged in Belgium over tennis fixing    

Five Armenians have been charged in Belgium with corruption, money-laundering and other crimes as part of a major international investigation into match-fixing in tennis, Belgian federal prosecutors said today. They were among 13 people detained in Belgium on Tuesday amid simultaneous raids also launched in the US, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Netherlands. An investigating judge in Belgium issued an arrest warrant for five people, “all of Armenian nationality,” the federal prosecutor’s office said. — Agencies