JOIN USAnand has scored six points out of eleven and apart from the draws, the Indian was lucky to post a victory against Alexei Shirov of Spain in the tenth round of the elite Group ‘A’.
With just two rounds to go in this category-19 event, Anand’s chances of a comeback are bleak.
Russian Vladimir Kramnik was joined in the lead by world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway who put it across Leinier Dominguez of Cuba. Both Kramnik and Carlsen now have 7.5 points and are now a half point ahead of nearest rival Alexei Shirov of Spain.
Anand shares the fourth spot along with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, defending champion Sergei Karjakin of Russia and Hikaru Nakamura of United States.
In Group ‘B’, Parimarjan Negi got a slightly better endgame that petered out in to a draw with Emil Sutovsky of Israel. P Harikrishna played out a draw with Chinese Ni Hua.
Results (round 11): Group ‘A’: Vishwanathan Anand (Ind, 6) drew Jan Smeets (Dut, 6); Loek van Wely (Ned, 4.5) bt Sergey Tiviakov (Ned, 4); Nigel Short (Eng, 4) drew Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 4.5); Hikaru Nakamura (US, 6) drew Peter Leko (Hun, 5.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 7.5) bt Leinier Dominguez (Cub, 5.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 6) drew Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 6); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 7) drew Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 7.5).
Group B: Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 5) drew Erwin l’Ami (Ned, 7); A Naiditsch (Ger, 6.5) drew David Howell (Eng, 5.5); Wesley So (Phi, 6.5) lt to Anish Giri (Ned, 8); Varuzhan Akobian (US, 3) drew Tomi Nyback (Fin, 3.5); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 6) drew Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 5); P Harikrishna (Ind, 5.5) drew Ni Hua (Chn, 7) LD Nisipeanu (Rom, 4.5) drew Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 4).
Group C: Benjamin Bok (Ned, 5.5) bt Soumya Swaminathan (Ind, 3); Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 7) bt Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 5); Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 1.5) lt to Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 5.5); Li Chao (Chn, 8.5) bt M Muzychuk (Ukr, 4); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 7) bt R Swinkels (Ned, 6); Kjetil Lie (Nor, 5) lt to Ray Robson (US, 7); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 5.5) lt to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 6.5).