Viswanathan Anand draws, ends joint third in Bilbao Masters

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand ended the Bilbao Masters Final with a draw against Ding Liren of China in the sixth and final round here.

Anand finished with five draws and a loss in the four-player double round-robin tournament and for the second time in a row, the Indian ace ended a Classical tournament winless after he drew seven and lost two at the Sinquefield Cup earlier this year.

USA’s Wesley So defeated Anish Giri of Holland in a tiebreak blitz game to win the event after the two overnight leaders drew their final game under normal time control.

Both ended on eight points with one victory and five draws apiece, while Anand and Ding pocketed five points apiece.

The soccer-like scoring system that gave three points for a win and one point for a draw did not encourage many decisive games for once and only two games ended decisively — a loss for Anand against Giri and a first round victory for Wesley against Ding. There were 12 games in all.

Matches were fought hard in the last round too and Anand had a real chance to score his first win.

Ding used the English opening as white and Anand countered it easily, getting the initiative early in the middle game.

The queens got traded and Anand played some inaccurate manoeuvres to let his chances slip as the game progressed.