World champion Viswanathan Anand penetrated through the defenses of Chinese champion Ding Liren and leaped into the sixth spot after the conclusion of the fifth round of the Alekhine memorial chess tournament at the Louvre.
After winning the first leg of the tournament on a high, Anand proved excellent for Liren, who had previously thrashed world number three Levon Aronian of Armeniain the tournament. It was simply a comfortable victory that came in instantly. Local star Maxime Vachier-Lagraev used most of his chances against Peter Svidler of Russia to lead alone on 3.5 points out of a possible five. Laurent Fressinet of France caused a huge disappointment defeating Vladimir Kramnik ofRussia to move to joint second spot.
Regarding other events of the day, Boris Gelfand of Israel drew with Aronian. On the other side, English Michael Adams could not alter a slightly better endgame against Nikita Vituigov of Russia and achieved draw again.
The battle will now shift to St. Petersburg in Russia. The last four games are scheduled to play at the Russian museum. With four rounds to be played Fressinet, Aronian, Gelfand and Adams trail the leader earned three points while Anand stands at the second position with 2.5 points. Ding Liren, Vituigov and Kramnik occupied the seventh position on two points while an unfortunate Peter Svidler stayed at the bottom based on one point.
Anand performed his best against Ding Liren. Following an unstable start with a loss and three draws, the world champion grabbed his opportunities and overcame Liren in all sections of the game. For the records, it was a Caro Kann by the Chinese that encountered a side lien that was not extensively analyzed. Liren was soon saddled with a passive position without much preparation to back him. Anand carried out a magnificent side attack to complete the whitewash. Anand just took 32 moves to score his first victory in the tournament.
Vachier-Lagraev entered a variation in the Grunfeld that will be most probably named after him in future. He obtained a reasonable position out of the opening and then committed a positional error to find himself on top versus Peter Svidler. The endgame was managed in copybook fashion and Svidler retreated after 41 moves.
Fressinet squashed Kramnik as black. Initially, the opening was unstable where Kramnik first accepted a pawn and then a piece sacrifice which was well played by Fressinet. He continued to improve his position on the king side inviting a dangerous attack. At the other end, once Kramnik also crashed under pressure.
Results of round 5: Viswanathan Anand of India (2.5) beat Ding Liren of China (2); Laurent Fressinet of France (3) beat Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (2); Peter Svidler of Russia (1) lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagraev of France (3.5); Boris Gelfand of Israel (3) drew with Levon Aronian of Armenia (3); Michael Adams of England (3) drew with Nikita Vituigov of Russia (2).
