Anand , Negi draw again; set to miss top-3 finish

Wijk Aan Zee, Jan 28 (UNI) Having blown away the chances of regaining the title, Viswanathan Anand is now firmly out of contention for a top-three finish as well after splitting points with Sergey Tiviakov in the 12th and penultimate round of the Corus Chess tournament here.

Starting at a disadvantage with black, Anand agreed for a draw after battling for 27 moves with the reigning Dutch Champion.

Tiviakov played a very solid opening with the white pieces and did not allow any opportunity to the Indian Super Grandmaster to achieve his goal.

Anand now aggregates seven points but with just one round to go, the Indian is almost certain to miss out on a top-three finish. He will take on Czech David Navara in the final round.

In group C, Parimarjan Negi drew his 12th round game against leader Ian Nepomniatchi, despite being in a promising position. Negi failed to make the most of a promising position and agreed to split points with the Russian in 55 moves.

The Indian occupies the tied fifth spot wih 6.5 points and is 3.5 points behind leader Nepomniatchi (10).

Anand shares the fourth to sixth place alongside Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler pf Russia. Kramnik drew with leader Veselin Topalov in 49 moves in what had been labeled as 'grudge battle' after their controversial match recently.

Teimour Radjabov meanwhile joined Topalov at the top with eight points after beating Alexander Motylev in 40 moves.

With Radjabov and Topalov on eight points, Anand now has no hope of joining them at the top as he is a full point behind them and the two leaders meet in the 13th and final round, which effectively becomes the title match, too.

In other matches, Svidler, who had stunned Topalov earlier in the event to throw open the tournament, failed to capitalise on that as he lost to local Dutchman Loek van Wely in just 22 moves.

Pairings for Round 13: Ponomariov v Motylev; Anand v Navara; Aronian v Tiviakov; Carlsen v Shirov; Svidler v Karjakin; Kramnik v van Wely; Radjabov v Topalov Results of Round 12: Topalov drew with Kramnik; Navara beat Ponomariov; Karjakin drew with Carlsen; Tiviakov drew Anand; Van Wely beat Svidler; Motylev lost to Radjabov; Shirov drew with Aronian Standings after Round 12: 1.Topalov and Radjabov 8.0 3.Aronian 7.5 4. Kramnik, Svidler and Anand 7.0 7. Navara 6.0; 8. Ponomariov and Karjakin 5.5 10. Tiviakov and Van Wely 5.0 12. Motylev 4.5 13. Carlsen and Shirov 4.0.

UNI