Rd. 5 - GM Viswanathan Anand vs. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

 

The first game to finish today was slightly surprising. Anand came out with an interesting idea in the Najdorf that caught MVL somewhat off guard. However, it wasn’t enough; MVL played well and despite being down a pawn had really good chances to hold. In the final position, White had an extra pawn but the position seemed to be much closer to a draw than a win. It was still surprising that Anand didn’t try to convert the position or at least torture his opponent.