Former world champion Viswanathan Anand’s plans worked to perfection as he put it across Jon ludvig Hammer to jump within striking distance of Veselin Topalov after the end of the penultimate round of Norway Chess.On what turned out to be a good day for Anand, the Indian ace used the hidden dynamics out of a decent opening to beat Hammer, who was outdone under pressure.Grandmaster Anish Giri of Holland threw the tournament open for Anand as he beat Topalov in a long drawn game.
In the other decisive game of the day, World champion Magnus Carlsen found his winning touch against levon Aronian of Armenia. Maxime Vachier-lagrave of France held Hikaru Nakamura to a draw, while Alxander Grischuk signed peace with Fabiano Caruana of Italy.Bulgaria’s Topalov, on six points, still enjoys a half point lead over Anand and it will be a showdown between the two in the final round.Topalov needs a draw with white but his style of chess is uncompromising, which might give Anand a chance to have a go against him.It may be recalled that Anand had beaten Topalov with black in the final game of the 2010 world championship.Hammer spent 25 minutes before making the decisive mistake. White ended up with an extra pawn, a better bishop and potentially a better rook, too. In growing time trouble Hammer quickly lost.