Anand defeats Karpov to win rapid event

MUMBAI, July 2: Grandmaster Vishwanath Anand last Sunday defeated former world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia to annexe the Hamburg Classic Rapid Chess tournament in Germany, according to the information received here today.Anand won the first two games against Karpov and then played safely to draw the third game and pocket the match 2.5-0.5.

Earlier Anand had convicingly beaten Vaselin Topalov, and Eric Lobron to enter the final. The games were played with 15 minutes to each player with restriction of ten second for every move, a format in which Anand is an expert. However, he had lost to Karpov in the league.