World Blitz Championships: Grischuk crowned champion; Vishwanathan Anand 22nd
Former World champion Vishwanathan Anand’s poor run continued going into the Blitz championships, where he finished a disappointing 22nd, reports FirstPost. The Indian GM who finished well in the recent Rapid event after a shaky start, was expected to come good in the Blitz tournament, which is his favoured category.
However, Anand again bounced back strongly during the final day of the championships, scoring seven draws and 3 wins, without a loss. But that turned out to not be enough at the end of the day, as the Indian GM finished 22nd with 13 points from 21 rounds. The 5-time World champion will be entering the strong Bilbao Final Masters as the defending champion in Spain later this month.
Russian GM Alexander Grischuk emerged as the Blitz champion, securing his third Blitz title, with a score of 15.5 points. Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took the second spot, on account of his better tiebreak, followed by Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik. Recently crowned World Rapid Champion Magnus Carlsen, had a forgettable Blitz event, finishing 6th.
The other Indian GMs in the event could not account to much in the tournament, with all of them finishing below Anand. India’s number 2 GM P Harikrishna, who recently won the Poker Masters tournament in Isle of Man, finished just below Anand with 12 points.
GM Krishnan Sasikiran, ended the tournament with 11.5 points, just half a point behind Harikrishna. Among other Indians in the fray, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi scored an identical 11 points, B Adhiban ended his campaign on 10.5 while S P Sethuraman scored 9.5 points in all.
Top 10 standings:
| Player | Ranking |
| Alexander Grischuk | 5 |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2 |
| Vladimir Kramnik | 15 |
| Vassily Ivanchuk | 10 |
| Ian Nepomniatchthi | 3 |
| Magnus Carlsen | 1 |
| Peter Svidler | 25 |
| David Navara | 7 |
| Yuri Vovk | 113 |
| Rustam Kasimdzhanov | 66 |