by Aviv Friedman

Vallejo - Anand: Anand's tourney strategy has not changed. In the spirit of Anatoly Karpov, he is a follower of 'win with white, draw with black' (with exceptions of course) Today he played actively against the 4 Knights 1.c4 e5 English and equalized without problems. White's plan with 9.b3 is nothing new, although usually with a different move order - After the game, white admitted he switched the move order and was quite miffed at himself since after 9…Ba7! White has nothing. As a result Paco played very cautiously, maybe also trying to just recover from yesterday's loss, and not fall into a 'one-two punch' with the tourney's second seed. He proposed a peace offering on move 18 but Vishy declined, thinking his attack might lead to more. When a few more moves were played and he didn't feel like he had anything tangible, he reciprocated the draw offer, which was accepted at once. Not much to report here I am afraid.

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