Fourth Bilbao Final Masters (*Chess*)

World Champion Vishwanathan Anand slipped to the third position after drawing his second round game against American, Hikaru Nakamura.  Anand had drawn his first round match against Magnus Carlsen of Norway, playing with white.
In the second round game, Nakamura had his moments, where he could have won, had he played a bit more aggressively, but Anand with black, forced a draw. Anand is now joint third as the Ukrainian, Vassily Ivanchuk shot ahead of him, defeating the lowest ranked, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain.
Another interesting game of the day was between Carlsen and Levon Aronian of Armenia, which too ended in a draw.
Eight rounds are still remaining in the tournament, being played on a double round robin basis. Ivanchuk and Aronian on four points, are in the lead, while Anand, Carlsen and Nakamura are joint third, on two points. The soccer-like scoring system gives 3 points for a win and a point for a draw.

The game between Anand and Nakamura was quite intense as both are known to never shy away from complexities.  Nakamura opened with the queen pawn and faced the ‘Semi-Slav defense’ which later shaped into a Moscow variation.  After a routine pawn sacrifice to position his strong pieces better, Nakamura went on a rampage and attacked the black queenside. Anand had to sacrifice a piece, but his deft maneuvering helped him stay in the game.  Enough counter play was possible for him after the sacrifice, due to his two commanding passed pawns, which compelled Nakamura to force perpetual checks.  The game lasted 38 moves.