Giri shocks Carlsen, Anand held by L'Ami

The 73rd Tata Steel Chess in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands, saw the first shock result of the tournament when World No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway blundered and went down to talented Anish Giri of Holland in a mere 22 moves.

The victory with black pieces was Anish's best till date and this was the first time that the Nepalese origin 16-year old scalped a 2800+ rated player.

Anish Giri was in his element in the biggest game of his young career. Going for the Grunfeld defense, the Dutchman found Carlsen on the wrong foot as he went for lesser known paths early in the opening. Giri eventually capitalised on an optical blunder winning a piece and Carlsen resigned immediately.

"It was a funny game. I did not expect him to go down like this," said Giri.

Meanwhile, world champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by local hopeful Erwin L'Ami in the third round of the 'A' group tie. With his second successive draw, Anand took his tally to two points out of a possible three and will now play with white against Wang Hao of China ahead of the first rest in the category-20 round robin tournament between 14 players.

Anand, playing the black side of a Bogo Indian defence, was in a spot of bother in the middle game as L'Ami had better placed pieces ready to cause the damage on the king side. It took a lot of effort for the Indian to find the counter-play and at the same time kept L'Ami's pieces in check.

The game took a decisive turn when L'Ami broke the center and Anand countered it with a timely pawn sacrifice ensuring exchanges that led to a level queen and minor piece endgame.

The peace was signed on move 34.

Available results round 3:

Group 'A': Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 1) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 1.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 1.5) lost to Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 1.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1) lost to Anish Giri (Ned, 2); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 1.5) playing Alexei Shirov (Esp, 0.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 1); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 1.5) drew with Wang Hao (Chn, 0.5).0

Group 'B': Friso Nijboer (Ned, 1.5) drew with Laurent Fressinet (Fra, 1.5); Luke McShane (Eng, 2) playing Vladislav Tkachiev (Fra, 1); Radek Wojtaszek (Pol, 1.5) beat Li Chao (Chn, 0.5); Le Quang Liem (Vie, 1) playing Wouter Spoelman (Ned, 0.5); Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 2) drew with David Navara (Cze, 2); Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor, 0) playing Wesley So (Phi, 1); Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 1.5) playing S S Ganguly (Ind, 1).

Group 'C': Sebastian Siebrecht (Ger, 2) playing Benjamin Bok (Ned, 1.5); Ivan Ivanisevic (Srb, 0.5) Mark van der Werf (Ned, 0.5); Kateryna Lahno (Ukr, 2.5) beat Roeland Pruijssers (Ned, 1); Dariusz Swiercz (Pol, 1) Tania Sachdev (Ind, 1); Illya Nyzhnyk (Ukr, 2) drew with Mark Bluvshtein (Can, 2); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 1) beat J W de Jong (Ned, 0.5); Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 1.5) Murtas Kazhgaleyev Kaz, 1).