Indian Grand Master Viswanathan Anand ended his run at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz on a bleak note in the final phase of the blitz format on Friday to finish overall ninth in the tournament.
Anand registered five draws, three losses and just the sole win in the 10 round robin games of the blitz format that were played on the day.
Starting the day’s play in the 10th game against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anand won his first round robin game in the format, winning it in 29 moves. Earlier it was Ian Nepomniachtchi who opened the game playing with white with a Center Game.
The next three games, however, saw Anand lose to Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Le Quang Liem respectively. Likewise, Anand drew the 14th and 15th game with Levon Aronian and Garry Kasparov respectively.
The sixteenth game saw Anand slump to his third loss of the day as he was edged by Lenier Dominguez. He ended the day with two further draws against David Navara and Sergey Karjakin respectively.
At the conclusion of the tournament, the 47-year-old secured a ninth place finish with a combined total of 14 points. Kasparov, who had been given a wild card for the event finished in the eighth place with a combined total of 16 points. Aronian secured a first place finish in the tournament with a combined score of 24.5 points.
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