Anand finishes joint-6th

Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands), January 28

Five-time winner Viswanthan Anand had to settle for the joint-sixth spot after drawing with Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland in the 13th and final round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament here. Fabiano Caruana capped a brilliant performance with another fine victory coming at the expense of Vladislav Artemiev of Russia and won the tournament with a huge two-point margin over reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who finished second.

Caruana ended the event with 10 points out of a possible 13, a feat that was achieved by Garry Kasparov in 1999 and Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Wesley So of the United States finished third with seven-and-a-half points. Half-a-point behind were Daniil Dubov of Russia and surprise packet Jorden Van Foreest of Holland. Anand finished alongside Anish Giri of Holland, Jeffery Xiong of United States, Duda, Artemiev and Alireza Firouza. — PTI

Hao halts Praggnanandhaa’s winning run

Gibraltar: Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa’s five-match winning spree came to a halt after the teenager went down to China’s Wang Hao in the seventh round of the Masters category at the 18th Gibraltar Chess festival here.

The 14-year old Indian, who turned things around superbly after losing in the opening round to compatriot

PV Nandhidhaa, met his match in the experienced Hao on Monday. Praggnanandhaa went down to Hao in 56 moves.

The Chinese Grandmaster now holds the joint lead with the Russian duo of Andrey Espipenko and David Paravyan, and Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran at six points.

Russian Daniil Yuffa, who beat Indian Grandmaster K Sasikiran, is in second place with compatriot Mihail Kobalia. Praggnanandhaa is joint-third with a bunch of players, including second seed Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and former world champion Veselin Topalov, with five points each. PTI