Anand finishes second in Tata Chess; Nakamura champion

Wijk Aan Zee : Five times winner Viswanathan Anand had to be content with a second place finish following a draw with Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in the 13th and final round of 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.

The World Champion could draw a big consolation from the fact that he would be the number one ranked player all over again as the results here proved that he will be overtaking world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the next rating list.

Hikaru Nakamura of United States owns the title after drawing his final round game with Wang hao of China.

For the records, Nakamura tallied 9 points in all, a half point more than Anand in this category-20 super tournament between 14-players.

The American not only performed way beyond his rating of 2751 but also finished ahead of the world's top four ranked players.

Anand got the better position with his black pieces but could not find a breakthrough AS Nepomniachtchi simply got an impregnable position in the endgame arising out of a Sicilian defense game.

The Indian ace settled for a draw in 37 moves.

"Disappointing," Anand said after the final results were out.

"When I reached a plus-four score (Four wins and rest draws), I felt I was well on my way to a final victory but Hikaru just kept winning, picking up six points in a row, which was quite amazing.

"But I'm not unhappy; it's difficult to be unhappy with a plus-four score. It's a pity I didn't manage to win the tournament but I think I performed above my rating, which isn't bad at all," the World Champion said.

The third place was shared by Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian of Armenia who both scored 8 points apiece. The last round of the tournament turned out to be a damp with all the games ending in draws for the first time in the event this year.

India keen to host Anand's 2012 world title match? Read more: India keen to host Anand's 2012 world title match?

CHENNAI: India would most probably host Viswanathan Anand's world chess title match in 2012. India's decision to join the fray came after London withdrew its bid to host the match last week.

Though the FIDE (world chess federation) had not confirmed the venue because the qualifying matches (Candidates phase) to identify the challenger to Anand were still in progress, the London organizers wanted an agreement to be reached by January 29, 2011.

FIDE had its presidential board meeting in Turkey last weekend which was attended by All India Chess Federation secretary DV Sundar. "The meeting did not discuss any bid in detail," Sundar told TOI. "But we offered to host the match in India," added Sundar, who is also the vice-president of FIDE.

London was projected as the city to host the match since 2009 but the sponsors found it difficult to finalize the deal with FIDE. At the moment, only Anand is the sure candidate for the match and his challenger would emerge from a series of Candidates matches to be held this year. "FIDE can't finalize any venue before the Candidates matches are over in May because the venue should be acceptable to the challenger as well. So the bids would be finalized only in May. Unfortunately, London said they could not wait that long," said Sundar.

This is not the first time that Anand's world championship matches have run into problems. The last championship match between Anand and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria had sponsorship problems but then Bulgaria stood behind its candidate (Topalov) and offered the maximum bid to seal it.

But this time the Indian federation seems ready for the big match. The last time the country hosted a world championship match in 2000 in New Delhi, Anand went on to win the title for the first time, though the final was held in Tehran.

"London has been a probable venue for the world championships since 2009 and the sponsors had shown keen interest in staging the event. I have not been involved in the negotiations so I can't comment on what has transpired. The world championships in 2012 would be one of the most closely-contested matches, personally for me it would be a very big challenge," said Anand, who reached Chennai on Sunday after the Wijk aan Zee tournament.

Anand's wife and manager Aruna said Anand would be happy to play the match in India but she was not sure about the Indian bid. "Anand has played three FIDE world championship matches in India and he has done well here. It would be a good challenge," she told TOI.

If India finally gets the nod, Chennai is the city that looks likely to host the match. AICF has already decided to host the world junior chess championship this year here and the 2012 match could be the grand finale.

Chess: The calculations of Vishy Anand

Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at games by the world champion Vishy Anand. He recently regained the no 1 spot on the rating list, so this seems a fitting moment to feature his play. His depth and speed of calculation marked him out as a special talent in his youth, and he has lost none of that sharpness in his maturity.

RB What is the white knight doing on g5? This was the first thing to strike me when Dan sent me this position. Has it just captured a piece? Has it been trapped? Has there been a whole series of bloody exchanges on that square? Is it a time-pressure blunder? I couldn't work it out, so I looked up the game on chessgames.com and saw that, no, actually, Short has just played the knight from a safe square – h3 – to its present perilous location, and he would only have done so if he believed the piece was immune. The trouble is, I don't believe it. I say trouble because I am a long way behind Short.

You can see at once how, after taking on g5, Black could end up with connected pawns on h4, g5 and f5, which would be very nice. But you can also see a little problem, which I ran into at the first attempt: 1...hxg5 2 fxg5 Nxg5, and immediately you get the point – 3 Qxh4+, with a very bleak future for the black king. Does that mean the knight is immune? I think Short miscalculated because I don't see anything wrong with 1...Nxg5 2 fxg5 hxg5, when Black is simply a pawn up.

DK Black might be a pawn up, but with his king exposed it's not so simple. Short continued with a further sacrifice: 3 Bxg5 Bxg5 4 Qe2, threatening a check on h5, which he thought was winning. But Anand had seen a step further: 4...Qd6 is the only move, but it's good enough. After 5 Qh5+ Qh6 blocked and the attack was over. All planned by Anand before he took the knight on g5.