Tata Steel Chess: Anand beats Firouzja, jumps to joint sixth

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand gave a fine endgame lesson to young Alireza Firouzja, jumping to joint sixth position at end of 11th round of Tata Steel Masters here. With his second victory, Anand clawed his way back to a fifty percent score and will w hope to end tournament on a high. At just 16 years, Firouzja is less than one-third of Anand's , and Indian ace showed that Iranian still has a lot to learn. Anand started with Nimzo Indian and faced Samisch setup by Iranian.

middle game was double-edged but Anand made most of it. Converting to a rook and opposite coloured Bishops endgame, Anand capitalised on his better pieces to tie down white's forces and in end forcibly won a pawn. For Firouzja, this was third straight loss in tournament after a brilliant start that saw him on leaderboard around half way mark. "I was t very optimistic before round," Anand said after game, adding, "I felt that after rest day he will get back in some sort of control, but he is very dangerous and aggressive."

With two rounds to go, Fabia Caruana of United States made a decisive stride forward for his maiden title here, crushing Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus to reach a very impressive eight points. American w enjoys a full point lead over world champion Magnus Carlsen of rway. Wesley So of United States is in sole third spot on 6.5 points, a half point clear of fourth-placed Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland and Jorden Van Foreest of Holland. In Challenger's section, Grandmaster David Anton Gujjaro of Spain also moved ahead of field, defeating Anton Smirv of Australia.  India's Surya Shekhar Ganguly is in joint fourth spot on 6.5 points while Nihal Sarin is joint seventh on 5.5.

Results

Masters round 11: Nikita Vitiugov (Rus, 4) drew with Daniil Dubov (Rus, 5.5); Alireza Firouzja (Fid, 5.5) lost to V Anand (Ind, 5.5); Vladislav Kovalev (Blr, 3) lost to Fabia Caruana (Usa, 8); Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 6) drew with Magnus Carlsen (r, 7); Vladislav Artemiev (Rus, 5.5) beat Jorden Van Foreest (Ned, 6); Wesley So (Usa, 6.5) drew with Jeffery Xiong (Usa, 5); , Anish Giri (Ned, 5.5) drew with Yu Yangyi  (Chn, 4).

Challengers: Vincent Keymer (Ger, 5.5) drew with Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 5.5); Nihal Sarin (Ind, 5.5) drew with Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 7); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 6) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Ind, 6.5); Pavel Eljav (Ukr, 6.5) drew with Jan Smeets (Ned, 5.5); Anton Smirv (Aus, 4) lost to David Anton Guijarro (Esp, 8); Max Warmerdam (2.5) drew with Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz, 2.5); Lucas Van Foreest (Ned, 5) lost to dirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 7).