Anand blitzes to stretch lead

Sports Bureau

WARSAW:
May 23, 2022 00:10 IST

Updated:
May 23, 2022 00:10 IST

Viswanathan Anand came up with another fine day’s work in the Grand Chess Tour Superbet chess tournament when he topped the blitz section to hold a lead of 1.5 points over local favourite Jan-Krzysztof Duda here on Sunday.

Anand, winner of the rapid section by a one-point margin on Saturday, scored half-point more than the rest of the field on Sunday after nine rounds of blitz games. Nine more rounds are scheduled on Monday. Aggregate points from rapid and blitz are considered to decide the overall champion.

During the day, Anand defeated Duda, Kirill Shevchenko, Wesley So, lost to David Gavrislescu, Fabiano Caruana and drew with Anoton Korobov, Levon Aronian, Richard Rapport and Radoslaw Wojtaszek.

Combined standings (after rapid and nine rounds of blitz): 1. Viswanathan Anand (19/27), 2. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 17.5). 3-4. Fabiano Caruana (USA, 17), Levon Aronian (USA, 17), 5. Richard Rapport (Hun, 16.5), 6. Wesley So (USA, 16), 7. Radosław Wojtaszek (Pol, 11), 8. Kirill Shevchenko (Ukr, 9.5), 9. Anton Korobov (Ukr, 6). 10. David Gavrilescu (Rom, 5.5).