World champion Viswanathan Anand drew with his world championship challenger Magnus Carlsen of Norway during the second round of the Norway Chess 2013 Super tournament in progress in Sandnes.
The much awaited encounter turned out to be a complete entertainer to the spectators. Carlsen attempted his utmost but could not utilize much of his white pieces in a crucial contested game arising out of a Sicilian defence. Both Carlsen and Anand advanced to one point out of a possible two in the 10-player round-robin tournament after a draw in the opener too.
In another game to end early was a damp squib between former World champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan. Levon Aronian emerged with a fine effort to outwit Hikaru Nakamura of United States.
In the other two games, Sergey Karjakin broke down the defenses of Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway. To everyone’s surprise, Peter Svidler of Russia was outwitted by Wang Hao of China. After the conclusion of the second round, Karjakin proved to be a sole leader with an ideal two points out of a probable two and he is currently followed by Aronian a half point behind.
Anand, Nakamura, Svidler, Topalov, Calrsen and Wang Hao share the fourth position on one point each. Radjabov occupied ninth place with a half point in his account. With seven rounds yet to come, Hammer occupied the bottom position of the tables and yet to open his account.
Anand advanced for the Sicilian defense against Carlsen. The Norwegian had hammered Anand in the Moscow variation last time out and he adhered to the same format however Anand was much better prepared this time. While the position remained same, Carlsen still had that pestering advantage he wanted to apply whereas Anand had to be in the defense even though it was not too difficult.
A rook and knight endgame was reached in no time and henceforth all Anand had to do was to banish the pawns off the board. The game advanced with Carlsen having an extra knight but no pawns on the board on move 59. Aronian defeated Nakamura out of an exchange Slav that boasts of the World No 3. The situation was about level out of the opening but the Armenian definitely had more ideas.
Nakamura considered that he was fine while giving white a queen side pawn majority but he was proved to be wrong in the endgame as Aronian collected most of it. At the conclusion, the American fought futile after losing a rook for almost nothing. Evidently, nothing came out of it and he had to quit after 70 moves.
Wang Hao played the game of the day by overcoming Svidler in his pet Grunfeld. The Chinese led the game early in the opening and did not pause even after grabbing an advantageous end-game. Hammer lost with white. Karjakin played correctly after getting a better endgame and hauled victory in 54 moves.
