26 March 2016:
Indian Chess Grandmaster
Viswanathan Anand is currently playing in the
Candidates Tournament 2016 in Moscow. The tournament officially opened on the 10
th of March 2016, with Round 1 being played on the 11
th March 2016.
The winner of
this tournament will play a match (later this year) with the current world champion, 25-year-old GM
Magnus Carlsen of Norway, to compete for the title of
World Chess Champion.
The 26
th of March 2016 is a "rest day".
The last two rounds of the tournament are due to be played tomorrow and the day after (Sunday the 27th, and Monday the 28th, of March 2016).
Anand, who is 46 years old, is currently in third place. The two players ahead of him are 23-year-old American GM
Fabiano Caruana of the United States and 26-year-old Ukranian-born Russian GM
Sergey Karjakin. They both have 7 points each, and Anand currently has 6.5 points. There are two rounds to go.
Anand has certainly shown mental resilience in this tournament. He recovered from setbacks to come back and score wins, beating expectations in impressive fashion. He started with a
win against Bulgarian GM
Veselin Topalov in Round 1. He
lost a game to GM Karjakin in Round 4, then scored a
win against Russian GM
Peter Svidler in Round 6, and another
win against Armenian GM
Levon Aronian in Round 9. In Round 10, he
lost to GM Caruana, and then scored a
win against GM Karjakin in Round 11. He
lost to American GM
Hikaru Nakamura in Round 12 (which was played on Friday the 25
th of March 2016).
GM Anand will be aiming to win both of his remaining games, to score two more points, as he aims to win the tournament. In Round 13, Anand plays against Russian-born Dutch GM
Anish Giri, and in the last round, Anand plays GM Svidler.
Here's wishing Anand all the very best for his games!! I'm rooting for Anand to win the tournament!!