The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand beats Topalov, stays on top

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 14, 2006

Sport

Sport - Chess

Anand beats Topalov, stays on top

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand handed out World champion Veselin Topalov his worst defeat since the Bulgarian became the game's top-ranked player, and maintained his winning sequence with black pieces after two rounds of the Mtel Masters chess tournament in Sofia.

Friday's 36-move verdict in Ruy Lopez kept Anand at the top of the table as he prepares to take on his old foe Gata Kamsky.

After ruthlessly punishing Topalov for his misadventure, Anand chose to underplay the outcome saying that the tournament was still in its early stages.

Peter Svidler and Kamsky also won their matches to stay half a point behind Anand.

Sasikiran loses again

Meanwhile in Sarajevo, K. Sasikiran crashed to his second defeat to Romania's Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in the Bosnia Saravejo 2006 Grandmaster chess tournament on Friday. The 67-move loss in Nimzo Indian kept Sasikiran on two points after six rounds of the 10-round event.

The results: At Sofia (second round): V. Topalov (Bul, 0.5) lost to V. Anand (Ind, 2); P. Svidler (Rus, 1.5) bt Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 0.5); G. Kamsky (US, 1.5) bt Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 0).

At Sarajevo (sixth round): K. Sasikiran (Ind, 2) lost to Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 4); Borki Predojevic (BIH, 3.5) bt Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 1.5); Vladmir Malakhov (Rus, 3.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3.5).

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