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Rare loss in rapid brings Anand down

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand suffered a rare loss in the rapid game to Peter Leko and gave up his position at the top after four rounds of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament at Nice, France, on Tuesday.

Anand drew the blindfold game with the Hungarian Grandmaster in 33 moves of Caro-Kann by choosing to repeat the moves in an equal position.

However, in the rapid clash, Leko’s late surge left Anand with very little options.

In this sharp battle in Siclian Najdorf lasting 28 moves, Leko’s strong bishop in the centre combined with queen and rook broke Anand’s defence.

The defeat, coming on the eve of the first rest day, saw Anand slip to fourth position in the combined standings and second in the rapid’s points tally behind Armenia’s Levon Aronian.

The results: Fourth round: Blindfold: Viswanathan Anand (2) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 1.5); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 1.5) lost to Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2.5) bt Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 2); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 0.5) lost to Loek van Wely (Ned, 2); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 2) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 2.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 2) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2.5).

Rapid: Leko (2.5) bt Anand (2.5); Topalov (2.5) drew with Mamedyarov (2); Morozevich (1) drew with Kramnik (1.5); Wely (1.5) drew with Gelfand (2); Ivanchuk (2.5) bt Karjakin (1.5); Carlsen (1.5) lost to Aronian (3).

Standings (after four rounds): 1-3. Topalov, Aronian, Ivanchuk (5 each), 4. Anand (4.5), 5-7. Leko, Carlsen, Kramnik (4 each), 8-10. Wely, Mamedyarov, Karjakin (3.5 each), 11-12. Gelfand, Morozevich (3 each).

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