Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 2: Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand won his second game in a row in the Norway Chess competition, defeating Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in the Classical group to grab the lead. In the battle of the veterans, the 52-year-old Anand defeated his opponent in 36 moves to make it two out of two in the second round late on Wednesday.
With six points, the five-time world champion has taken the lead. Following a fourth-place result in the Blitz event, he won the Classical tournament against France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
After their ordinary game ended in a 38-move tie, American Wesley So, who won the Blitz event before of the classical portion, outwitted world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the Armageddon (Sudden death game) to finish second behind Anand.
Anand, who had previously defeated Carlsen in the blitz event, resumed his winning streak. The Indian ace ascended to ninth place in the world live rating list after defeating his long-time opponent.
Vachier-Lagrave defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov via Armageddon in the second round of the 10-player competition, while Teimur Radjabov defeated Norwegian GM Aryan Tari.
After the normal match concluded in a stalemate, Dutch GM Anish Giri and Wang Hao drew their Armageddon game.
