Isle of Man Open: Viswanathan Anand finishes joint-second after win over Hou Yifan in final round

Douglas, Isle of Man: Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand capped his impressive run with another victory over Chinese grandmaster Hou Yifan in the ninth and final round to sign off joint-second at the Isle Of Man Chess Championship in Douglas on Monday. Anand took 53 moves to overpower Yifan to finish with seven points. He shared the second spot with America’s Hikaru Nakamura. [caption id=“attachment_4103235” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Viswanathan Anand. Image credit: Official website of Grand Chess Tour[/caption] World Champion Magnus Carlsen won the title with 7.5 points after a short draw against Nakamura to pocket a cheque of £50,000. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Swapnil S Dhopade finished joint-third at 6.5 points after playing out draws against Hungarian Rapport Richard and Ukraine’s Eljanov Pavel respectively. Among other Indians, Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan ended at the joint 13th spot at six points after signing truce with Vallejo Pons Francisco. SP Sethuraman drew with compatriot Swayams Mishra to finish at 5 points at the 48th place. Harika Dronavalli and Adhiban B signed off with wins over Degtiarev Evgeny and Batsiashvili Nino respectively. Young prodigy R Praggnanandhaa also ended his campaign with a victory over Balint Vilmos.