Viswanathan Anand has proved yet again that age is merely a number as the Indian grandmaster triumphed at the Champions Showdown chess tournament held in St. Louis, United States. On Monday night, Anand finished in the first position in the elite tournament in which four of the top players in the world fought it out.
Anand, who will be 47 next month, overcame challenges from the likes of Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruna on his way to the championship. While Nakamura is ranked 8th in the world, Caruna is ranked 2nd currently.
The tournament did not adhere much media attention as it clashed with the World Championship title match. Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are playing for the current World Championship title in New York – the first World Championship match in a decade that does not feature Anand.
The tournament featured all the three-time controls in the game of chess viz. classical, rapid and blitz. Anand, who is ranked eighth in the world, finished with 15 points while Nakamura was the runner-up with 14 points. Caruna finished third behind Anand and Nakamura as he could garner only 11 points.
Anand’s competitor in the 2010 World Championship match which the Indian won, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria finished last with only eight points. The victory ensured that Anand took home $60,000 as prize money while Nakamura won $40,000.
The final standings are listed below:
| Standings | Player | Points |
| 1 | Viswanathan Anand (Ind) | 15 |
| 2 | Hikaru Nakamura (US) | 14 |
| 3 | Fabiano Caruana (US) | 11 |
| 4 | Veselin Topalov (Bul) | 8 |
