Isle of Man open: Viswanathan Anand wins in Round 8

Viswanathan Anand will face China’s Hou Yifan next in the Isle of Man open. Photo: HT

Isle of Man: Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand and Swapnil S. Dhopade notched up wins while Vidit Santosh Gujrathi played out another draw as the trio shared the joint third place after the eighth round of the Isle of Man International chess tournament, on the island.

Anand continued his unbeaten run at the tournament by beating France’s Fressinet Laurent in 41 moves. He will face China’s Hou Yifan next.

Swapnil, meanwhile, defeated England’s Short Nigel after battling for 73 moves. The Indian will play Ukraine’s Eljanov Pavel in the ninth round.

Gujrathi, on the other hand, signed truce with Ukraine’s Eljanov Pavel after 30 moves and would meet Hungarian Rapport Richard next.

Indian grand master Harika Dronavalli played out a hard- fought draw against Australian GM John Paul Wallace after toiling it out for 62 moves last night.

S. Sethuraman, however, suffered a loss against Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik. The Indian will face compatriot Swayams Mishra.

At the top, world champion Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are at the first and second positions at 7 and 6.5 points respectively.