Anand tricked by Caruana; Carlsen wins first game

Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands)

Viswanathan Anand suffered a painful defeat from a dominant position, losing to Fabiano Caruana of United States in the eighth round of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament. World champion Magnus Carlsen scored his first victory in the tournament, beating Nikita Vituigov of Russia. For Anand, it was a forgettable day. The Queen’s Pawn opening by Caruana as white prompted Anand to sacrifice a pawn early in the middle game, and as it turned out, it was probably all right. Caruana sacrificed a rook for a minor piece soon after to create some dangerous threats around black’s king. Caruana erred on Move 37 to give Anand a winning endgame. However, the Indian eventually missed some forced drawing lines to go down in the tie. Carlsen scored a quick victory over Vituigov in a one-sided affair. Alireza Firouzja remained in the joint lead with Caruana on 5.5 points, ahead of USA’s Wesley So and Jorden Van Foreest of Holland. Carlsen, on 4.5 points, is next in the standings along with Jan Krzysztof Duda of Poland. After his second loss in the event, Anand slipped to the 10th spot with 3.5 points.

Basseterre (Saint Kitts and Nevis)
Simmons hits 10 sixes as WI rout Ireland to level T20I series 

Opener Lendl Simmons blasted 10 sixes in an undefeated 91 as West Indies routed Ireland by nine wickets in the third and final T20I.

Brief Scores: Ire: 138 (O’Brien 36; Pollard 3/17, Bravo 3/19); WI: 140/1 (Simmons 91*, Lewis 46) — Agencies