Anand ends second

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand played out a quick draw with Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to finish second in Norway chess tournament, part of the Grand Chess tour.The last round did not provide the expected fireworks as Topalov just decided to play it safe with his white pieces and followed an earlier game played between Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Magnus Carlsen. The game ended in a draw vide repetition in just 18 moves.

“I couldn’t think of an opening where he wouldn’t have such an option. I thought if he wanted to do this, I didn’t think that I should go crazy. I was ready for a fight but I didn’t want to be silly about it,” Anand said about the last round.looking back at his tournament, Anand said, “Plus three (his three wins); I’m pretty satisfied with my play and my result. If you said before the tournament, plus three, three wins like this, I wouldn’t have complained.”

It was a tentative start in Anand’s opinion. “In the beginning of the tournament I was worried that I was not playing my best because I felt I was missing some chances. I would say after that, the last four or five games, I felt in control all the time and obviously the three wins are very pleasing,” he said.

“Sometimes you have to be practical,” said Topalov on his choice after playing the rest of the games in true uncompromising style he is famous for.

The Bulgarian won the first edition of the Grand chess tour, pocketed the first prize of $75000 and also gained 13 points to lead the ‘three-tournaments-tour’.

The next two tournaments of the tour will be held in San luis, USA, in August and in london in December.The final round saw two exciting games and the biggest upset of the event was caused by lowest ranked Jon ludvig Hammer as he defeated his ‘friend’ and compatriot world champion Magnus Carlsen. The latter did not calculate too well in the final game and Hammer was at his best in finding resources.