Kramnik, Topalov win Amber chess

Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov emerged joint-winners at the 10th Amber Chess Tournament at Monte Carlo on Friday.

FIDE World Champion Viswanathan Anand drew both his games with last year's champion Alexei Shirov to finish third.

Topalov, who had shown great form during the championship beating both Anand and Kramnik, almost fell at the final hurdle. He blundered an exchange in the blindfold game against Ljubomir Ljubojevic. Many people immediately remembered last year, when Topalov also lost to Ljubojevic in the last round.

However, Topalov defended will and managed a draw, while Kramnik could not win his promising position against Peter Leko.

Boris Gelfand shared the top position in the rapid section with Kramnik but ended at the penultimate place in the blindfold.

Kramnik played a great game against Leko in the rapid. He impressed in the middle game and reached a better position. It was very unpleasant for white to defend, but Leko found the best moves when Kramnik entered white's position with queen and knight. The game was finally drawn in 64 moves. They also drew their blindfold games.

Anand too drew his rapid with Shirov in a French Defence. The two finalists FIDE World Championship finalists did not attack each other and agreed to a draw in 19 moves.

Shirov posed some problems in the blindfold, again in the French Defence. But Anand's excellent 25th move solved much of his problems. Shirov did not push for a win and agreed to a draw.

Final Standings 1-2 Kramnik, Topalov 15 3 Anand 13.5 4 Shirov 11.5 5-6 Gelfand, Leko 11 7 Piket 10.5 8-9 Almasi, Ljubojevic 9.5 10-11 Ivanchuk, Karpov 9 12 Van Wely 7.5