Scoring his second win, Vishy Anand is now tied with Sergey Karjakin in second place at the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. David Navara scored an upset win vs Ding Liren, and Alexander Grischuk defeated Veselin Topalov.

Magnus Carlsen remains in the tournament lead.

Today, at the press conference Anand was asked why he is still playing at the highest level, while most of the players from his generation have either quit chess or are much less successful. Was it his labor, or his talent?

Before he could answer, next to him Giri whispered: "Both!"

Even an always modest Anand could only agree there. With a big smile he reacted: "Anish nailed it!"

The five-time world champion, who was one of the first to call Vladimir Kramnik on his phone when the latter announced his retirement, started with a reference to him:

"I think Vladdy could have gone on if he wanted. With a little bit optimism he would have been fine! Of course I'm joking; he could have gone on for a bit longer. He had a few bad results but even last year wasn't a bad one for him."

"It's not like I'm the only guy. Boris [Gelfand] is still also kicking. Vassily [Ivanchuk] is still there. OK, my results are a bit higher in classical but I think Boris is already passing me in rapid so it's all over the place."

Anand, world number six at age 49.

Today Anand scored his second win, and it was Giri's second loss. The Dutch grandmaster "blundered" (top GM slang for "missed") two moves from his opponent, and that was enough to get into a hopeless position.

Anand: "I was also surprised how good my position got so suddenly." Read more...

Source: www.chess.com