Sandnes (Norway) May 11: World champion Viswanathan Anand crushed his former challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the third round to jump to the joint second spot in the Norway Chess 2013 super tournament, here.
Sergey Karjakin of Russia scored his third straight victory at the expense of Wang Hao of China to lead the table with three points. Anand and Levon Aronian follow him, a full point behind.
Teimoru Radjabov of Azerbaijan finally won a game, disposing the challenge of local hopeful Jon Ludvig Hammer to move to a fifty per cent score.
With six rounds to come in the ten-player tournament, Radjabov shares the fourth spot along with world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Hikaru Nakamura of United States and Russian Peter Svidler on 1.5 points apiece.
Wang Hao and Topalov are sharing the eighth spot on one point each while Hammer is at the bottom, yet to open his account.
The day produced three decisive games and local star Carlsen had to settle for his third straight draw with Nakamura. Russian Svidler too shared the point with Aronian making sure he stayed in the hunt as well.
Anand produced his best when needed. Playing the white side of a Najdorf Sicilian, the Indian ace went for the English attack and came up with some startling new ideas that caught Topalov unawares.
It may be recalled that in 2010, a superior preparation had given Anand a victory in the last game of the world championship match against Topalov and the Bulgarian still doesn’t seem to have recovered from that. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel