Topalov beats Anand

World champion Vishwanathan Anand faltered at a major hurdle and went down to Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria 0.5-1.5 in the ninth round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament, in Monte Carlo, on Tuesday.

Braingames match winner GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia blanked GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic of Yugoslavia 2-0 to shoot into the sole lead on 13 points. Topalov trails the leader by a half point margin and is followed by Anand on 11.5 points.

Slated to play the dangerous trio of Topalov, Kramnik and Shirov in the last three rounds, the Indian GM knew his chances were in the rapid game in which he has earned a reputation of being world's best.

Playing white in the Rapid version, Anand went all out for a win and as it turned out in the end on Monday, had to pay heavy dividends for his over ambitiousness. The Sicilian Sveshnikov has a reputation of being dangerous once out of the extensively analysed variations.

Though Anand was on familiar territory with the white pieces, Topalov uncorked a new idea on the 20th move and deviated from an earlier game played between Anand and Peter Leko in the Wijk Ann Zee tournament in January this year.

Anand got into difficulties from a dynamically balanced position after pushing his Queen Bishop pawn to the fifth rank. Topalov cashed the opportunity and soon his pieces dominated the chequered board.

It was on the 28th move when the die was cast. The position appeared worse already but Anand made a blunder and allowed Topalov's rook invasion to the seventh rank. The game was over in two more moves.

Anand did not fancy his chances much with the black pieces in the Blindfold game. Topalov achieved a slightly superior position against the French defense in the middlegame and routinely exchanged a few minor pieces. The Queens got traded on the 23rd move and Topalov proposed a draw after seizing the seventh rank with his Rook. Anand decided against any desperate tries.

Kramnik made short work of Ljubojevic in both games. Playing his favourite Semi Slav in the rapid variant, Kramnik got an easy equality with the black pieces and slowly exerted pressure in the centre.

Ljubojevic miscalculated a simple manoeuvre on the 29th move and lost a pawn. The game soon transposed into a knight and pawns endgame where Kramnik netted himself another pawn to romp home.

The Blindfold too was pretty much one-sided. The Classical variation against the King's Indian defense has served Kramnik well in the past and this day was not an exception. Ljubojevic appeared all at sea as Kramnik unleashed a queenside attack early in the middlegame. By the time Ljubojevic got his share of counterplay on the other flank, Kramnik had already gobbled a couple of pawns. The game lasted 27 moves.

Defending champion GM Alexei Shirov of Spain seems to be getting his magical touch back, albeit a little too late.

The Latvia-born Spaniard outsmarted GM Peter Leko of Hungary 1.5-0.5 and took the 4th spot on the 10 points table.

The Rapid game was of academic interest as it featured one of the popular lines of the Sicilian Nazdorf where Leko had the advantage of white pieces. Both players skillfully carved the moves and plan and after exchanging majority of pieces in the middlegame a Rook endgame was reached. Leko got a pawn by force but the ensuing position was a theoretical draw.

In the Blindfold game, Shirov capitalised on a positional blunder by Leko in the Ruy Lopez opening and sacrificed a rook for knight to gain spatial advantage in the middlegame. Leko failed to find the most stubborn defence and after the exchange of queens, Shirov marched his passed pawns to win back the lost material. The resulting Rook endgame was child's play.

GM Boris Gelfand of Israel accounted for GM Jeroen Piket of Netherlands 1.5-0.5 in a keenly contested match.

The other encounters of the day ended in 1-1 draws but not without excitement. Former World Champion GM Anatoly Karpov of Russia put it across GM Zoltan Almasi in the Rapid game but failed to continue with the same form in the Blindfold while GM Vassily Ivanchuk had a similar outing against GM Loek Van Wely of The Netherlands.