CHENNAI: Multiple-time World champion
Viswanathan Anand drew his opening round at the
Grenke Classic
chess against
Yifan Hou
in Karlsruhe (Germany) on Saturday evening. The clash, which saw Anand play with white pieces, went on for 48 moves.
Anand, a former champion at the event, will be locking horns with Grandmaster Vachier-Lagrave in the second round on Sunday.
The match that everyone was looking forward to in this 10-player event was between
Magnus Carlsen and his challenger
Fabiano Caruana
. The contest lived up to its top billing with both players not giving an inch and going for the kill. The high-voltage clash lasted 59 moves and both players shared the spoils.
Others to draw their clashes include GM Levon Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave against Georg Meier and Arkadij Naiditsch respectively.
However, the only player to return home with a richly-deserved win was Nikita Vitiugov. Nikita got the better of Matthias Bluebaum in 25 moves and was placed on the top of the charts at the end of the opening day.
The subsequent round in the competition will see Carlsen taking on Yifan while Caruana will be facing Bluebaum. Aronian plays Naiditsch and Vitiugov has Meier in front of him.
The strong field will witness the opening three clashes being played at Schwarzwaldhallte Karlsruhe before the players move to Baden-Baden to slug it out for rounds 4 to 9. The tournament has received a lot of attention thanks to the presence of stalwarts in form of Carlsen, Anand and the newly-crowned Challenger Caruana.
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