Anand leads by two points
Viswanathan Anand turned the clock back and reproduced his much acknowledged skills in speed chess to open a two-point lead after 14 rounds in the opening round of the World blitz chess championship in Moscow on Monday.
In a 22-player double-round robin format, Anand scored a whopping 12 points by winning 10, including the last five rounds, and drawing four in this invitational field.
The players face each other twice, once with each colour, in this three-day event. For each game, a player gets three minutes for the whole game plus two seconds of increment per move.
Norway’s Magnus Carlsen was second with 10 points, inclusive of nine victories, but lost surprisingly to Anatoly Karpov, Vugar Gashimov and women’s World champion Alexendra Kosteniuk.
Exceeding all expectations, 58-year-old Karpov was holding the third place with nine points.
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