World Rapid Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand defeated GM Hikaru Nakamura to end a run of two consecutive stalemates and stay in joint lead after six rounds of the Tal Memorial Rapid chess tournament in Moscow.
Anand, playing white, needed 42 moves to end Nakamura’s resistance in a bishop-king ending and take his points tally to four from a possible six. The 48-year-old now shares the lead with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, who is the only player to have beaten the Indian in the event so far.
Alexander Grischuk and Vladimir Kramnik are in joint third position with 3.5 points.
Anand began his campaign with two straight wins before losing to Mamedyarov on the opening day of the 11th edition of the tournament being played in the Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow.
And it looked like the 48-year-old was struggling to keep up with the leader when he drew his fourth and fifth round games against Peter Svidler and Kramanik respectively. But the Indian came back strongly in the final game to catch up with Mamedyarov, who was held to a draw in all the three games on Saturday.
The final three rounds of the event will be played on Sunday with Anand facing Sergey Karjakin, Grischuk and Boris Gelfand in that order in this 10 players single round-robin tournament.
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