Viswanathan Anand (six points) drew with Vladislav Kovalev to share the sixth spot after the 12th and penultimate round of Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here on Saturday.
USA’s second seed Fabiano Caruana took an unsurpassable 1.5-point lead over Magnus Carlsen and ensured the title with a round to spare.
Caruana (9) defeated Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda to reach nine points. Carlsen (7.5) drew with Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev.
In the Challengers category, Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6.5) lost to Pavel Eljanov (7.5) and Nihal Sarin (6) drew with Vincent Keymer. Spain’s David Anton Guijarro (8) continued to lead despite losing to Max Warmerdam.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway played out a draw with Vladislav Artemiev of Russia to remain on second spot on 7.5 points, 1.5 points less than Caruana’s impressive nine points from 12 games.
The Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouzja, who is likely to play for another country soon , finally put an end to his losing streak of three games and drew with Nikita Vituigov of Russia.
Wesley So of United States drew with Jorden Van Foreest of Holland to remain in third spot.
In the challengers’ section, Indian aspirations ended as Surya Shekhar Ganguly suffered a defeat at the hands of erstwhile sole leader Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine.
David Anton Guijarro of Spain suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Max Warmerdam of Holland but still retained his sole lead by a half point over nearest rivals Erwin L’Ami of Holland and Eljanov.
The results:
12th round: Viswanathan Anand (6) drew with Vladislav Kovalev (Blr, 3.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 9) bt Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 6); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 7.5) drew with Vladislav Artemiev (Rus, 6); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 6.5) drew with Wesley So (USA, 7); Daniil Dubov (Rus, 6.5) bt Yu Yangyi (Chn, 4); Jeffery Xiong (USA, 5.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 6); Nikita Vitiugov (Rus, 4.5) drew with Alireza Fiouzja (FIDE, 6).
(With inputs from PTI)
