Candidates Chess: Anand crushes Svidler; back in title hunt

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand staged a brilliant comeback by crashing through the defences of Peter Svidler of Russia in the sixth round of Candidates Chess tournament in Moscow.

The mixed-bag for Anand continued in the biggest challenge of the year as the Indian ace got what he was looking for with white in nearly a lop-sided encounter against the seven-time Russia champion.

The win helped Anand inched up to joint second spot in overall standings on 3.5 points out of a possible seven, while Sergey Karjakin of Russia survived almost a lost position against Fabiano Caruana of United States. Anand with 3.5 can look up to the coming games with confidence.

The Indian ace has been under pressure to perform in similar circumstance for quite some time now. Caruana obviously missed some simple opportunities. The American who recently changed federation from Italy was on his toes to figure out a winning continuation but on this day he could not figure that out when it mattered.

Anand has had some remarkable results against Svidler and the Indian ace lived up to the reputation in an Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez where the Indian played white.

Anand got his superiority in the centre as the game progressed and then went for a well-calculated King side attack that put Svidler on the back foot.

As it happened in the game, Svidler fought but only till 24 moves when Anand made sure there were no defences left.

Results Round 6: V Anand (Ind, 3.5) beat Peter Svidler (Rus, 2.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 1,5) playing Anish Giri (Ned. 3); ); Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 3) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 4); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5) playing Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2).