Croatia Grand Chess Tour: Viswanathan Anand beats Garry Kasparov for second consecutive time

Zagreb: Former world champion Viswanathan Anand defeated long-time rival Garry Kasparov for the second consecutive time, in the 13th round of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour’s Blitz event on Sunday. He had beaten Kasparov on the first day too. The victory came for the Indian maestro after three straight draws in rounds 10, 11 and 12 against Anish Giri (the Netherlands), Jan-Kryzstof Duda (Poland) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) respectively. He followed it up with a superb win over Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, the top-seed in the 14th round to be joint third in the standings with Giri on 18 points. Playing black, Anand got the better of Kasparov in 25 moves in a Nimzo-Indian defence game. On the first day of the Blitz on Saturday, the Indian ace had recorded four wins, drawn three matches and suffered two defeats. The former world champion had ended up seventh after the Rapid section, with nine points. He had posted two wins and drawn five and lost two matches. Meanwhile, Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave jumped to the top of the standings after 14 rounds with 19.5 points followed by Nepomniachtchi (18.5 points).