Norway Chess: Viswanathan Anand defeats Wang Hao for third consecutive win

Oslo: Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand continued his winning campaign in the Norway Chess tournament as he defeated China’s Wang Hao in the third round to remain on top of the standings.

Anand pulled off a stunning win against World no. 1 Magnus Carlsen on Monday, followed by three straight wins over former world champion Veselin Topalov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Hao.

After the regular classical match concluded in a tie after 39 moves, the 52-year-old Anand won the Armageddon (sudden death game) early on Friday.

With the win over Wang Hao Anand registered the third consecutive win in the tournament, after having defeated Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in the first two rounds.

The former world champion beat Hao in just 44 moves, bringing his count to 7.5 points. He is closely followed by Wesley So of the United States, who is in second place with 6 points, and former World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who is in third place with 5.5



points.

In the other matches of the day, Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave defeated Norwegian Aryan Tari, and Anish Giri shared points with So, drawing the classical and Armageddon games, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Topalov in the sudden death.

The Blitz event, which came before the ongoing Classical one, was won by the American chess grandmaster Wesley So.

Earlier, Anand defeated world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in the seventh round of the blitz event of Norway Chess to earn a fourth-place finish.

Viswanathan Anand started off with a win over Norway’s Aryan Tari, before drawing with Wesley So in the second and winning against Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov in the third round. In the fourth round, he shared points with Azerbaijan’s Teimur Radjabov.

A loss to Anish Giri in the fifth round and to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the ninth round meant Anand finished off at fourth position with five points in the event.