Looking for his sixth record title here, Anand took his tally to 4.5 points out of a possible eight and now needs to score at least two wins in the remaining five rounds to be in with a chance to win the title.
The runaway leader, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan met his nemesis in Anish Giri of Holland who played a fine game to cut the huge margin in points.
After his super victory, Giri joined Mamedyarov in lead on 5.5 points. They were also joined by top rated Magnus Carlsen of Norway who put it across Gawain Jones of England.
Grandmaster B Adhiban, the other Indian in the fray, played out a draw against Karjakin in this round and took his tally up to two points from eight games. Adhiban is yet to win a game in the event.
In the challengers section being organised simultaneously, Vidit Gujrathi came back to winning ways to beat Dmitry Gordievsky of Russia.
Vidit's victory coming with black pieces, has put him back to joint lead along with Anton Korobov of Ukraine who was beaten by Amin Baseem of Egypt.
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