Indian chess ace Viswanathan Anand defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in 40 moves in the first round of the classical section of the Norway Chess tournament here.

The win over the French player late on Tuesday enabled the Indian GM to gain 3 points. American Wesley So beat Teimur Rajdabov in the first round to be level with Anand, while Magnus Carlsen had to settle for a draw with China’s Wang Had.