Anand faces Nakamura; title race wide open
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, January 24, 2011
Viswanathan Anand’s consistency and Magnus Carlsen’s comeback, coupled with the calculated charge from the crafty duo of Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik has truly set the stage for a thrilling finish to the Tata Steel chess tournament at Wijk ann Zee, in the Netherlands.
With five rounds to go, the world’s top four players are surely performing to their stature and profile even as world number 10 Hikaru Nakamura has had his moments so far in the 14-player round-robin event.
Following a much-needed rest day, joint leaders Anand and Nakamura face off in the ninth round on Tuesday. Also watched with keen interest will be the encounter between a previously unbeaten Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Carlsen, both on five points, like Aronian and Kramnik.
Since the last of the three rest days in the marathon event is scheduled on Thursday, the contenders can be expected to go flat out over the next two rounds.
Five-time winner Anand, having already met all the big names, is being seen as the favourite to score maximum in the remaining five rounds.
After Nakamura, Anand is due to play a struggling Alexei Shirov, against whom he enjoys a highly favourable head-to-head score.
Carlsen, after a slow start, has played true to his reputation by scoring 3.5 points from the last four rounds, just like he did recently in London to pip Anand to the title. This 19-year-old has repeated displayed phenomenal mental strength when trailing. Not afraid to lose, Carlsen could well win like he did in 2008 and 2010.
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Anand has the best chance to win the tournament and be No. 1 in the rankings with a wider gap.