Anand to take on Nakamura in Sinquefield opener

Five times world champion Viswanathan Anand will take on Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the first round of Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess tour.

After some fine results recently, Anand can hope for another improved performance against an elite field that has eight of the top ten in world ranking present here.

As usual, the favourite is World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who will like to forget his last outing in the Grand Chess tour at the Norway super tournament where he finished with a below-par seventh spot netting him just four points in the <g data-gr-id="14">over-all</g> tally of this <g data-gr-id="15">three-events</g> series.

The tournament will have 9 rounds between 10 players under classical chess rules with two hours allotted for first 40 moves and one hour for the remaining part of the game.

After the 40th move, the players get 30 seconds increment after every move.