Anand Ends Rapid With Two More Defeats

The former world champion Viswanathan Anand lost to Fabiano Caruana of USA 0.5-1.5 in his first match.

Indian chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand lost both his games in the Quick event to finish his drive with just one success at the 7th Vugar Gashimov Memorial chess tournament here on Tuesday.

The former world champion lost to Fabiano Caruana of USA 0.5-1.5 in his first game of the day before going down to lower-rated Azerbaijan player Vugar Asadli by the exact margin.

Anand’s only victory in the Rapid area came against Shakriyar Mamedyarov in the sixth round on Monday. He ended with a total of 5.5 points from seven games.

His flops came against Sergey Karjakin of Russia, Richard Rapport of Hungary, Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan and David Navara of the Czech Republic.

Anand will now participate in the Blitz tournament beginning on Wednesday. The Gashimov Memorial tournament this year is being played as a rapid and blitz chess tournament.

The blitz games will be performed over two days on Wednesday and Thursday.