Viswanathan Anand signed off his dismal campaign in the chess24 Legends of Chess with a 2-3 loss to fellow veteran Vassily Ivanchuk in the ninth and final round on Wednesday.
All five games, including the tie-breaker Armageddon game, ended as draws. Since Anand played Armageddon with white pieces, with a minute more on the clock, the winning point went to Ivanchuk. Overall, this was Anand’s fourth loss in Armageddon in as many appearances.
Eight defeats in nine rounds pushed Anand to the ninth spot in the league standings, ahead of Hungary’s Peter Leko.
Magnus Carlsen posted his ninth successive win after dominating Vladimir Kramnik 3-1 and topped the league table. Kramnik needed to beat Carlsen to claim a semifinal spot, provided Anish Giri defeated Peter Svidler.
Giri did win 2.5-1.5 but a desperate Kramnik lost the third and fourth rapid games to slip to the sixth spot, one behind Ivanchuk. Kramnik’s defeat cleared the way for Svidler to the semifinals.
In the best-of-three set semifinals, beginning on Friday, Carlsen faces Svidler while Ian Nepomniachtchi plays Anish Giri.
The results (ninth round): Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) bt Viswanathan Anand 3-2; Magnus Carlsen (Nor) bt Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 3-1; Boris Gelfand (Isr) bt Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus) 3-2; Anish Giri (Ned) bt Peter Svidler (Rus) 2.5-1.5; Ding Liren (Chn) bt Peter Leko (Hun) 2.5-1.5.
Standings (after round-robin league): 1. Carlsen (25), 2. Nepomniachtchi (20), 3. Giri (18), 4. Svidler (14), 5. Ivanchuk (13), 6. Kramnik (12), 7. Gelfand (11), 8. Liren (9), 9. Anand (7), 10. Leko (6).
