Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand won the 12th Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament in style defeating Bulgarian Veselin Topalov 1.5-0.5 in the 11th and final round here.This was Anand’s third title in this unique tournament that has one blindfold and one rapid game in each round. The Indian ace had earlier stamped his superiority here in 1997 when he won all the three titles at stake — rapid, blindfold and combined, and in 1994.Anand finished the tournament with a tally of 14.5 points, a full point ahead of nearest rivals Peter Leko of Hungary and 2001 champion Alexander Morozevich of Russia.Though Anand did not finish first in the individual rapid and blindfold categories, his steady performance in both was enough to net him the champion’s crown.Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia won the blindfold title after he drew his last round game with Ljubomir Ljubojevich of Yugoslavia. Kramnik had a full point lead in this section and he achieved the just result in the last round. Anand tied for second along with Morozevich in blindfold with a fluent victory over Topalov. Russian Evgeny Bareev won the rapid title after agreeing to a quick draw with world championship finalist Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. Like Kramnik, Bareev also scored eight points out of a possible 11 and was half a point clear of Anand and Leko in this section.Anand started the last round with white pieces and faced the in-vogue Sicilian Sveshnikov. Anand deviated from variations he had been employing of late and caught Topalov off guard.The Bulgarian was surprised by a very effective 13th move that gave Anand a tangible advantage with his pawn advances, fetching him a passed pawn on the sixth rank as early as on move 15. Topalov never recovered thereafter and it was evident that he was fighting a lost battle after Anand exchanged a few pieces to lend momentum to his quest for the title. On move 30 Anand had two passed pawns on sixth rank and it was just a matter of finding the right moves to curb Topalov’s last-ditch efforts. The game lasted 43 moves.In the return rapid game, Anand equalised comfortably with his black pieces after opting for one of the side variations of the Ruy Lopez. Topalov was obviously dismayed by his mauling in the blindfold and took a safe approach that ended the game in truce in just 17 moves.Morozevich failed to get past Hungarian Zoltan Almasi in the blindfold despite fighting till the last nail. However in rapid, Almasi proved no match and lost a tactical battle playing white.Leko drew both the games with Boris Gelfand of Israel after pressing hard for a victory. In the first game, Gelfand defended accurately after losing a piece in the endgame and the second was an intense struggle.The shared fourth place went to Topalov and Kramnik on 13 points apiece while Gelfand finished sixth on 12 points.
