Stavanger (Norway): Former world champion Viswanthan Anand slipped to the bottom of the points table after going down to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the second round of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament here.
Anand, who lost to world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the Armageddon game in the first round, was out of sorts in the classical game against Mamedyarov wherein he held a decent position for a long time.
Mamedyarov, however, capitalised on a blunder by the Indian ace to get the first maximum of two points in the super tournament that has introduced an Armageddon game in case of a draw.
Fabianoa Caruana of the US was the other winner of the day winning against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in classical time. The other three games of the day ended in draws and lead to deciding Armageddon games. Russia’s Alexander Grischuk drew against Wesley So of US. However, the American won the return game with black pieces.
Magnus Carlsen survived many anxious moments and was close to losing in both the games against Levon Aronian of Armenia. But Aronian was not in his elements and kept missing winning moves several times first in the classical and then subsequently in the Armageddon.
Ding Liren of China, better known as the second Asian to cross the 2800 rating barrier and Anand’s successor in the continent, was defeated by compatriot Yu Yangyi in the Armageddon game.
With seven rounds still to be played, Mamedyarov leads the field with 3.5 points followed by Carlsen and Yangyi on 3 points apiece. Caruana is at the fourth spot with 2.5 points. Anand is currently placed at the bottom alongside Lagrave with half-a-point each.