Anand wins 10th world rapid chess title

By IANS

Mainz (Germany) : India’s world No.1 Viswanathan Anand completed a perfect 10 as he grabbed the Grenke Leasing World Rapid Chess Championship for the 10th time here.


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In the process, Anand avenged his defeat at the hands of Armenian Lev Aronian, who had beaten him in the final of the Chess960 format at which he was making his debut.

Anand beat Aronian in the fourth and last game of the final, after the first three ended in a draw Sunday. Anand, thus, won 2.5-1.5 points.

The Indian, who is setting up a MindChampions Academy for Chess with NIIT, had earlier topped the preliminaries in which Uzbek Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Etienne Bacrot of France also took part.

Three days after clashing in the final of the FiNet Chess960 World Championship, Anand and Aronian, both preparing for the World Championships in Mexico, were again engaged in a tense clash.

The pair played a Ruy Lopez similar to a game from the preliminary. But while Anand was better in that game, he failed to get anything out of the opening and quickly agreed to a draw.

In the second game, Aronian’s pair of bishops fought two knights. Yet, the Armenian gave Anand with no more than a pawn and kept his bishops to compensate for his material disadvantage.

However, when Anand neutralised White’s pressure and Aronian had only 30 seconds against his rival’s seven minutes, the Indian looked like winning.

Suddenly, they agreed to a draw. Analysis revealed that Anand had no way to avoid losing his extra pawn after which the ending was a dead draw.

The third game revealed how much respect Anand and Aronian had for each other and how careful they were to avoid the risk of losing or to reveal any secrets.

They repeated the Ruy Lopez of their games from the preliminary and the first round of the final. But again Anand failed to achieve anything out of the opening and the game was drawn without much excitement.

The fourth and decisive game started quietly but ended dramatically.

Anand, playing with black, managed to equalise after the opening to reach a position, which did not offer much chances to either side.

Aronian, probably tired, suddenly began making mistakes and also fell behind on the clock. His weakness, the pawn on a3, was in real danger and when it fell, Anand seemed to be well on his way to keeping his title of Rapid World Champion.

While Aronian had saved himself in some bad positions, this time Anand went for the kill and drove his advantage home to win his 10th title in Mainz.

In the prelims, Anand won two and drew one game on first day, and then drew all three on the second day to finish with four points out of a possible six. Aronian was second with 3.5 and qualified for the final against the Indian.

Kasimdzhanov and Bacrot were third and fourth respectively and fought for the third placing match.

Bacrot won the first game and lost the third and the second and fourth games were drawn and with no tiebreaker being played, the third position was shared.

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