World champion Viswanathan Anand displayed top form defeating former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the eight round of Corus International Chess tournament here today.With five rounds still to come, Carlsen is still sitting pretty on 5.5 points and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Levon Aronian of Armenia follow him a half point behind. Anand is next in standing list on 4.5 points and giving him company is Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.In the ‘B’ group being played simultaneously, P Harikrishna played out a draw with Erwin L’Ami of Holland while Koneru Humpy did well to hold Etienne Bacrot of France.The eighth round will, however, be remembered for another reason. Nigel short of England was given a point on forfeit due to misbehavior by his opponent Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria. The matter was later reviewed by ‘Appeals committee’. Short had recently made some comments about Topalov, who is working with Ivan Cheparinov on a regular basis, which the team-Topalov did not like. As a result Cheparinov did not shake hands with Nigel Short and paid the penalty.It was a recent FIDE stipulation that even the Chief Arbiter was unaware of. According to the new rule, it is tantamount to an insult if a player refuses to shake hands and this was what Cheparinov did.
