On a day of mixed fortunes, Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocking defeat against Veselin Topalov in the blindfold but bounced back to beat the Bulgarian in the rapid game in the second round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament here.After yesterday’s 1-1 results, Anand was way behind in the overall standings with just two points from four games played so far. He now shares the eighth spot with Topalov.Vladimir Kramnik, who suffered a series of lapses in the rapid variant of the game last year, gave ample evidence that he was very well prepared this time as he shot in to sole lead in overall standings with 3.5 points.Peter Leko of Hungary, who came up with another inspired performance to beat overnight joint leader Alexander Morozevich of Russia, held the second position in the overall standing having amassed 3 points in his kitty so far. Anand was in a tight spot against Grandmaster Topalov in the blindfold right from the word go after opting for the Taimanov Sicilian.The Bulgarian seized the initiative in the middle game with copy-book manoeuvres in the center and cashed in on a positional error by the Indian to knock down two pawns. Anand resigned after 61 moves.
