world chess championship : Tbilisi World Cup 2.1: Anand brilliancy backfires

in chess •  7 years ago 

Vishy Anand lost to Anton Kovalyov after going for a stunning but flawed piece sacrifice and now faces elimination from the 2017 World Cup unless he can win with the black pieces on Thursday. Avoiding such a predicament perhaps explains why no less than 25 of the 32 matches ended in draws, but Magnus Carlsen is on the brink of Round 3 after easing to a win with Black against Aleksey Dreev. There were also wins for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladimir Kramnik, David Navara, Vladimir Fedoseev and Vidit.
In case you missed it, Tbilisi resident IM Sopiko Guramishvili recapped how 128 players were cut to 64 in Round 1 of the FIDE World Cup

Vishy Anand tumbles

The one sensation on the first day of Round 2 was Vishy Anand falling to a player rated 145 points below him – 25-year-old Ukrainian born Canadian GM Anton Kovalyov. Anton, who is studying in Texas, would later describe himself as “not a professional chess player” and “not a very ambitious player”, and it was clear Vishy hoped to play for a win with the white pieces.

gggg.jpg

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!