Anand loses to Nakamura and slips from joint lead

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand yet again suffered a defeat against Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the 12^th round and needs a Herculean effort to stage a comeback in the Candidates Chess tournament now underway.

Nakamura has been Anand’s nemesis for some time and another meeting between the two again brought out the best in the American who has otherwise had a forgettable Candidates.

For the first 11 games, Nakamura had just scored a single victory, seven draws and three losses. The victory against Anand made his record slightly better but the American has no chance whatsoever of winning the Candidates.

With just two rounds remaining in his biggest challenge of the year, Anand has a tall task on hand. In all probability, the Indian will have to win both his last two games to be in with a chance to challenge Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the next world championship match later this year.

It won’t be an easy task as Anand has to meet the seemingly impregnable Anish Giri of Holland and Peter Svidler of Russia. While he plays white against Giri, the black against Peter Svidler in the final round will still be tricky if Anand wins the next one.

While the other games of the 12^th round were still in progress, it looked as though Russian Sergey Karjakin was winning against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria while Giri had the better position against another Russian Peter Svidler.

Overnight leader along with Anand, Caruana Fabiano was evenly poised against Levon Aronian of Armenia.

Nakamura got everything right at the start. Surprising Anand in another English opening in which the Indian lost to Caruana in 10^th round, Nakamura was in control early as Anand was caught off-guard.

In the post-match conference, Nakamura revealed that black’s 11^th move was a mistake when Anand saved his Bishop from a pawn onslaught.

Getting in to a difficult situation by move 11 is not what Anand is used to and it was already difficult to find the most resourceful defences. As it happened in the game, Anand lost in just 26 moves.

Results round 12: Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 5.5) beat V Anand (Ind, 6.5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 6) playing Veselin Topalov (Bul, 4); Peter Svidler (Rus, 5.5) playing Anish Giri (Ned, 5.5) Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 6.5) playing Levon Aronian (Arm, 5.5).