File photo Viswanathan Anand
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand lost to Richard Rapport of Hungary and David Navara of Czech Republic in the second and third round respectively of the Rapid event in the 7th Vugar Gashimov Memorial chess tournament here on Sunday.
Anand lost by identical 0.5-1.5 margins. After losing to Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan in the first round on the opening day on Saturday, the Indian chess ace could not register any win in his two matches on Sunday. He lies in sixth spot with two others.
In the second round, Anand lost the first of the two-game mini-match to Rapport with black pieces. The second game ended in a draw with the Indian playing with white pieces.
Later in the day, Anand (Elo 2751) went down to lower-rated Navara (Elo 2697). Playing with white pieces, he lost in the first of the two-game mini-match before managing to hold his Czech opponent in the next. Anand will take on Sergey Karjakin in the fourth round on Monday.
American Fabiano Caruana, the highest-ranked player in the tournament, leads the field of Rapid event following a win over Rapport in the third round. He won the Armageddon after the two players had split wins in the two-game mini-match.
In the Armageddon, white gets five minutes and black gets four minutes, with three-second increments starting after move 60. In other third round matches, Sergey Karjakin of Russia won both his games against Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan while Rauf Mamedov got the better of Vugar Asadli 1.5-0.5.
The tourney, which also includes a Blitz event, boasts of a strong field that includes Caruana, former world championship finalist Karjakin and Mamedyarov among others. The Gashimov Memorial 2021 is being played as a rapid and blitz chess tournament.
After the conclusion of the rapid event on December 21, the blitz games will be played over two days on December 22 and 23.
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