Anand falters in World Rapid chess, Gujrathi on song

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand squandered away a good start and could just end Day 1 on a fifty percent score after the end of the fifth round of World rapid chess championship here.

Fast improving Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi stole the honours of the opening day of the three-day event after coming out with an inspired performance including a victory over second seed Alexander Grischuk of Russia.

Apart from Grischuk, Gujrathi also accounted for higher rated Grandmasters like Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan and Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine besides getting two hard-fought draws against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hungarian Peter Leko to end the day in tied second spot with four points from five games played thus far.

For <g data-gr-id="18">Anand</g> the day started with a victory over Russian Grandmaster Kateryna Lagno and Alexander Onischuk of United States. However in the third round, the Indian ace had to find some precise defense to get a draw with <g data-gr-id="16">A <g data-gr-id="15">R</g></g><g data-gr-id="15"> Salem</g> Saleh of UAE.

Anand lost the fourth round against young Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov while in the fifth another Russian Pavel Ponktarov found the Indian on the wrong foot.

With ten rounds still to come not much is lost for <g data-gr-id="21">Anand</g> but he will need a far better second day to come back in <g data-gr-id="33">reckoning</g> in this.