Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz Chess: Viswanathan Anand's poor form continues into blitz section, finishes at bottom of standings on Day 4

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand’s poor form continued in the blitz section at the Saint Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour, being held at Missouri, USA. From the nine games of blitz played on the day, Anand scored a solitary win, three losses and five draws. He scored 3.5 points and was placed in a tie for the seventh-eighth place in the section. In the overall standings, he occupies the bottom of the table and placed last with 9.5 points. French grandmaster Vachier-Lagrave made a powerful comeback in the blitz section and scored five wins and four draws to head the table with seven points. In the combined standings, however, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Hikaru Nakamura of the US jumped to the head the table with a total tally of 17 points each, thus overtaking Fabiano Caruana of the US. Having played each other once in a Round Robin format in the rapid section, all the players played each other once on the day in the blitz section and will repeat the same nine games on Wednesday as well, with reversed colours from Tuesday’s matches against each opponent. The scoring system is changed in blitz as well, with a win carrying one point, half a point for a draw, and a loss resulting in no points. [caption id=“attachment_4970201” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Anand in action against Hikaru Nakamura. Image courtesy: Saint Louis Chess Club/Austin Fuller[/caption] The blitz section is played in a faster time control than the rapid section of the first three days. Each player gets five minutes for the whole game, and each move is added with a time delay of three seconds. That is, a player will be given five minutes to complete the whole game, but his clock starts running only after the initial three seconds for each move. So, even the longest game is generally completed in a maximum of about 15 minutes, assuming both the players manage to play a lot of moves in the gaining time of three seconds. Given the wildness of the format, a blitz chess game can be considered as a game of inaccurate conduction, as well as the ultimate test of one’s positional mastery and quick calculation. In such a format, it is important that a player is at the best of his form, physically, psychologically and chess-wise. Considering that Anand did not have a good run in the rapid section, for a reigning world rapid chess champion, his form in the blitz too continued to be shaky. He started with losses against Vachier-Lagrave and Karjakin, two of the best blitz players in the world. After that, he managed to steady himself with three draws and even scored a win against Grischuk in the sixth round. The game against Grischuk highlighted what Anand needed to do on the board, to bolster his playing ability and score. In a highly unclear middlegame position arising out of a Sicilian defence game, both sides had castled their kings on the opposite sides of the board and were poised to conduct direct mating attacks. Such positions tend to ignore general positional considerations, favouring hand-to-hand combats full of sharp tactical play. In such a wild middlegame, Anand blundered on the 18th move and lost a vital central pawn, after which the game looked to be in Grischuk’s favour. However, this was when the tactical fighter in Anand woke up, and he threw all his pawns and pieces into attacking the opponent’s king and played rest of the game with great energy, to finally win in 33 moves. This game clearly showed Anand’s acclaimed strength, his tactical flair and capability when presented with the initiative. Perhaps, the tournament might still hold chances for Anand to resurrect himself if he plays to his strengths in the second half of the blitz section on Wednesday. But, Anand’s remaining three games of the event too followed a lacklustre path, as he drew two more games and ended with a loss in the final round to Mamedyarov. Blitz standings after nine rounds: Vachier-Lagrave – 7 points Grischuk – 5.5 Aronian, Nakamura and Mamedyarov – 5 Caruana – 4.5 Anand & Karjakin – 3.5 So - 3 Dominguez - 3 Combined standings after rapid section and the first leg of blitz section: Mamedyarov & Nakamura – 17 Caruana – 15.5 Vachier-Lagrave – 15 Aronian – 14 Karjakin – 12.5 Dominguez – 12 Grischuk – 11.5 So – 11 Anand – 9.5