Anand suffers shock defeat

The win gave Demuth a shared second place with four points and the defeat made Anand’s task of finishing in the top five even more difficult as he has to win quite a few games to justify his rating. 

Demuth, an unheralded player, played solidly after losing a pawn. Anand pressed hard by giving a pawn to promote his Kingside pawn. Avoiding a few tactical skirmishes, Anand exchanged his Queen and rook around the first time control and reached a knight ending where black’s Queenside passed pawn proved decisive. 

From the Indian point of view, the day belonged to Abhijeet Gupta, who played a brilliant game to outplay Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi in Nimzo-Indian defence. The win helped Gupta to share second the lead with compatriot Harikrishna, Etienne Bacrot of France and Markus Ragger of Austria, who all have 4.5 points each. Harikrishna put it across SP Sethuraman in 45 moves of English opening from the black side. Hari defended well after Sethu broke through the centre and threatened to promote a pawn.

Etienne Bacrot and Markus Ragger drew their top-board game in 20 moves of Sicilian Defence. Top seed Hikaru Nakamura of US regained lost ground when he made short work of Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine in 26 moves of Reti to reach four points. 

India’s Dronavalli Harika and Bruzon Lazaro of Cuba agreed for a draw in 15 moves to tally four points and keep themselves on the top boards. Harika and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi were in second position with 19 others with four points each.