Defending champion Viswanathan Anand played a technical game to beat Grandmaster Peter Svidler of Russia in the second round of Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament in Monaco on Monday.
Anand had suffered a shocking 0.5-1.5 loss at the hands of Russian Alexander Morozevich in the first round of this unique annual event, so this was a fine comeback by the Indian ace. He grounded Svidler in the rapid game after settling for a draw in the blindfold.
At the start of the event, the Indian ace, who won all the three titles at stake -- rapid, blindfold and combined in the last edition of the event, apparently had not got over the blues he had suffered during the last weekend's blind tournament in Iceland wherein he had lost the semi-finals duel against wonder-kid Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
However, with the victory against Svidler, a tough contender here, Anand seems to be back to winning ways.
Nine rounds remain in the tournament that features one blindfold and one rapid game in each round.
In the rapid event, Anand shares the top spot along with World Cup winner Levon Aronian of Armenia and World champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria; all have 1.5 points each after the first two rounds.
In the blindfold, however, Anand is down in the standing list on a shared ninth spot, having just a half point from two games played thus far.
In the overall standings, Anand is on joint sixth spot behind five leaders -- Aronian, Morozevich, Topalov, Peter Leko of Hungary and Spanish Francisco Vallejo Pons who all have 2.5 points to their credit.
The shocker of the second round was Topalov's loss against Aronian, who is having a great run since last year.
The reigning world champion lost the blindfold game against the Armenian and could only get a draw in the rapid game.
Earlier in the first round, Topalov had emerged as the sole leader with a smashing 2-0 victory over Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.
Anand was at his clinical best in handling Svidler.
Playing the black side of an Anti Marshall in the blindfold game, all Annad had to do was exchange pieces at regular intervals to keep the parity.
The game ended in a draw in a mere 23 moves.
It was in the rapid game that Svidler got a taste of his own medicine with black pieces.
Going for a similar variation that Anand had chosen earlier in the day, Svidler was outplayed in the endgame in which Anand came up with an excellent plan to win a piece.
Svidler called it a day after 53 moves.
Complete results Blindfold round 2:
Alexander Grischuk (Rus) drew with Francisco Vallejo Pons; Alexander Morozevich drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr); Peter Svidler (Rus) drew with Viswanathan Anand; Levon Aronian beat Veselin Topalov; Peter Heine Nielsen drew with Vassily Ivanchuk; Loek Van Wely drew with Peter Leko.
Rapid round 2:
Pons drew with Grischuk; Gelfand drew with Morozevich; Anand drew with Svidler; Topalov drew with Aronian; Ivanchuk drew with Nielsen; Leko drew with Van Wely.
Blindfold Standings after Round 2:
1-4. Van Wely, Leko, Morozevich, Pons 1.5 each; 5-9. Gelfand, Grischuk, Aronian, Topalov 1 each; 9-12. Anand, Ivanchuk, Nielsen, Svidler 0.5 each.
Rapid Standings after Round 2:
1-3. Aronian, Topalov, Anand 1.5 each; 4-9. Morozevich, Gelfand, Grischuk, Leko, Nielsen, Pons 1 each; 10-12. Ivanchuk, Van Wely, Svidler 0.5 each.
Combined Standings after Round 2:
1-5. Aronian, Morozevich, Leko, Vallejo Pons, Topalov 2.5 each; 6-9. Van Wely, Gelfand, Grischuk, Anand 2 each; 10. Nielsen 1.5; 11-12. Svidler, Ivanchuk 1 each.
