India's Viswanathan Anand (right) in action along with other players during the Qatar Rapid and Blitz Championships, at the Ali Bin Hamad Attiya Arena, Al Sadd, in Doha yesterday. Pics by: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
An interesting contest is on the cards as the 2016 FIDE World Rapid Championship heads into the last rounds.
The last-five deciding rounds of the 15-round championship will be held today.
Yesterday, overnight leader Anton Korobov of Ukraine and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan shared the lead at the end of the eight round.
Korobov and Mamedyarov, both have 6.5 points at the end of eight rounds, while defending world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway fell way back to the 13 position, with 5.5 points after eight rounds.
Another contender, India’s Viswanathan Anand, a former world champion has half a point more than Carlsen.
Closing following the top two of Korobov and Mamedyarov, were Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Yangyi Yu of China, Alexander Grischuk or Russia, Anand, Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, all with six points, Chao Li of China, Santosh Gujrathi Vidit of India, Xiangzhi Bu of China, Carlsen, Vladislav Artemiev of Russia, Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria, and Villagra Henriquez, all have 5.5 points.Today is the last day of the three-day Rapid event.
The Rapid will be fifteen (15) rounds for Open and twelve (12) rounds for Women’s championship, with a single game for each round, Swiss event.
