Triumphant Anand signs off with a tame draw

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand finished off what has been a highly successful Candidates tournament campaign with a draw against Russia’s Peter Svidler in the 14th and final round here on Sunday.

Having won one of the strongest tournaments of recent times with a round to spare, Anand just didn’t want anything to go wrong and went for the draw with white pieces that was for the taking. 

The Indian ace, apart from earning the right to a rematch with Magnus Carlsen of Norway, also took home a handsome winners purse of 135,000 euros.

The bidding for the rematch is now open and FIDE, the apex chess body, will decide the venue after receiving all the bids by April 30 this year.

The match will be held from November 5-25.

Sergey Karjakin of Russia was the lone winner in the day at the expense of an out-of-form Levon Aronian of Armenia. 

Anand ended the tournament on 8.5 points, a full point ahead of Karjakin who finished a creditable second after a bad start. 

Playing the white side of a Marshall gambit out of a Ruy Lopez opening, Anand simply gave no chances to Svidler. 

Pieces got exchanged at regular intervals as Svidler could do little and in almost no time the players found themselves in a drawn minor piece endgame.

The game lasted 34 moves.

Final round results: Levon Aronian (Armenia) lost to Sergey Karjakin (Rus); Viswanathan Anand  (Ind) drew with Peter Svidler (3); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Russia); Veselin Topalov (Bul) drew with Dmitry Andreikin (Rus).

Final standings: Anand (8.5 points) 1; Karjakin (7.5) 2; Kramnik (7) 3; Andreikin (7) 4; Mamedyarov (7) 5; Svidler (6.5) 6; Aronian (6.5), 7; Topalov (6) 8.