4. Viswanathan Anand (2773)(8) Chance: 11%
2013 was a bit rough for our old champ Vishy; he lost his crown to Carlsen in a fairly lopsided affair and his chess in general left little to be desired. He has managed to remain in the top 10 in the world despite all these setbacks but I firmly believe that this will be his last big hurrah. You can’t ever really discount any one of the guys in the tournament completely but Anand just hasn’t shown anything aside from some opening novelties lately that would lead me to believe he’s serious about a mounting a challenge to Carlsen. All that being said; he’s got a lot of customers in this group who he has scored well against in the past (Topalov, Kramnik, Svidler come to mind) the issue is that he doesn’t seem to score well against the younger generation (ie. Aronian, Carlsen). I predict he finishes right around the middle of the pack but I believe that there is still something inside of him that wants to prove that he’s still great and he must know this may well be the last chance he gets at this stage. Here is a game of his from the Norway chess tournament against Topalov:
Here are his results against the field:
| Opponent | Result (W-L-D) | Last 5 Games |
|---|---|---|
| Levon Aronian | 2-7-18 | 1-1-3 |
| Vladimir Kramnik | 10-8-67 | 0-0-5 |
| Veselin Topalov | 15-13-36 | 3-0-2 |
| Sergey Karjakin | 2-0-8 | 0-0-5 |
| Peter Svidler | 6-0-20 | 1-0-4 |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 1-0-4 | 1-0-4 |
| Dmitry Andreikin | 0-0-1 | 0-0-1 |