Superbet Rapid tourney: Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand continues bull run, leads field

Warsaw, May 20

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Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand continued his superb form on the second day of the rapid event of the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland tournament here on Friday, posting victories in rounds four and five before local hero Jan-Kryzstof Duda halted the winning streak in the sixth.

Anand is ahead of the field with five wins and a draw, tallying 11 points after six rounds.

After jumping the lead on day one with three impressive wins, the veteran Indian Grandmaster, got the better of Ukraine’s Kirill Shevchenko in the first match of the day. He followed it up with a brilliant victory over the highly-rated Lev Aronian.

In the sixth round, Anand took on Polish star Jan-Kryrzstof Duda in a French Paulsen Attack game and the duo settled for a draw in 51 moves.

Playing as a wildcard in the tournament, the Indian ace had on Thursday defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland in the first round, before getting the better of American Wesley So and Anton Korobov (Ukraine).

The event, which is part of the 2022 Grand Chess Tour, boasts of a strong field that includes Fabiano Caruana (USA), Aronian, So and Rapport apart from Anand.

A player gets two points for a win in the rapid and one point for a draw.

After nine rounds of Rapid, the players will take part in a Blitz event over two days with each player coming up against the nine others twice.