Anand signs off joint 2nd at Amber chess

Indian ace Viswanathan Anand was held by Wang Yue of China in the blindfold game to finish at overall joint second in the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament here.

The World champion signed off with seven points out of a possible 11 to top the rapid section along with Levon Aronian of Armenia and American Gata Kamsky yesterday. In the blindfold section, he finished at joint fourth with 6.5 points.

Anand shares the second spot with Russia's Vladimir Kramnik with a tally of 13.5 points.

Aronian clinched the 18th edition of the prestigious event after drawing both his games against former world champion Veslein Topalov of Bulgaria in the final round.

He finished with 14 points out of a possible 22.

In the blindfold game, the Slav defense employed by Wang Yue caused quite a few problems for Anand. The Chinese grabbed the advantage when he sacrificed a piece for a dangerous move. But a lack of time forced him to commit a mistake which cost him the win.

Both players agreed to a draw after 85 moves.

''I managed to make more than 40 legal moves, I don't think it's winning,'' Anand said after the game.

Anand made amends in the rapid game. Playing with white pieces, he maintained the advantage throughout to force the win after 61 moves. In other games of the day, Magnus Carlsen of Norway lost his blindfold game to Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan. But he recovered to win the rapid game and finished at the sole fourth position with a total of 13 points.

Alexander Morozevich of Russia (11 pts) was at the fifth spot.

Results (final round): Blindfold: Wang Yue (Chn) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind); Veselin Topalov (Bul) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm); Teimour Radjabov (Aze) beat Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) beat Peter Leko (Hun); Alexander Morozevich (Rus) beat Gata Kamsky (USA); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) beat Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) Rapid: Anand beat Wang Yue; Aronian drew with Topalov ; Carlsen beat Rajdabov; Leko lost to Kramnik; Kamsky drew with Morozevich; Ivanchuk lost to Karjakin; Final standings (Combined): 1. Aronian (14), 2-3 Kramnik, Anand (13.5 each), 4. Carlsen (13), 5. Morozevich (11), 6-7 Topalov, Karjakin (10.5 each), 8-9 Kamsky, Leko (10 each), 10. Ivanchuk (9.5), 11. Radjabov (9) and 12. Wang Yue (7.5). Blindfold Standings: 1-3. Aronian , Carlsen, Kramnik 7 each; 4-5.

Anand, Morozevich 6.5 each; 6-7. Leko, Topalov 5.5 each; 8-9.

Ivanchuk, Radjabov 5 each; 10. Karjakin 4.5; 11. Wang Yue 3.5; 12.

Kamsky 3. Rapid Standings: 1-3. Anand, Aronian, Kamsky 7 each; 4. Kramnik 6.5; 5-6. Carlsen, Karjakin 6 each; 7. Topalov 5; 8-10. Ivanchuk, Leko, Morozevich 4.5 each; 11-12. Radjabov, Wang Yue 4 each.

-- (UNI) -- 27SPD31.xml

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