SANDS: Anand returns, Nakamura shines in London rapid chess battle
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Viswanathan Anand made a comeback and Hikaru Nakamura made a statement in the premier event at the 5th London Chess Classic that ended Sunday, a rapid tournament pitting 16 of the world’s best players in a star-studded knockout tournament.
The Indian ex-world champ jumped right back in the arena just weeks after his painful match loss to new Norwegian titleholder Magnus Carlsen, a loss that ended Anand’s seven-year reign atop the chess world. Anand showed he shouldn’t be written off just yet, easily qualifying to the quarterfinals before being eliminated in a tough pairing with fellow ex-champ Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, 1½ -½.
Nakamura, the highest-rated U.S. player
since Bobby Fischer, took first in the event, defeating British GM Nigel Short, Kramnik and Israeli GM Boris Gelfand (Anand’s 2011 challenger) on his way to the title. With his recent strong results at both rapid and classical time controls, Nakamura now is third in the world rankings, trailing only Carlsen and Armenia’s Levon Aronian.
Anand, a legendarily fast calculator in his youth, remains one of the best in the world at the rapid (Game/25, 10-second increment) time controls, and he easily qualified from his four-player opening group to advance to the quarterfinals. He twice defeated GM Luke McShane in the qualifying, the second time with a bold, speculative piece sacrifice that posed overwhelming defensive difficulties for the English star.
Nakamura rocks. He’s the best ever.