Anand Wins For Seventh Time At Leon
By Arvind Aaron

World No.1 Viswanathan Anand remained undefeated as he beat Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria 3-1 in the finals of the City of Leon Rapid Chess Tournament being played at Leon in Spain on July 8. Clinical in his approach, like the semifinals, Anand won both white games and drew both black games for his seventh title at Leon in north Spain.

In the best of four finals, Anand started with a draw with the black colour and won the second game to take a lead. In a Sicilian Najdorf, Topalov who played black was being outplayed on the queen side. He tried to hitback on the king side and sacrificed material. Anand won the material and defended as the point fell in his lap easily.

The second set of two games followed the same pattern. Anand drew again using a Ruy Lopez with black in the third game and won the fourth, though he was only required to draw it for the title. Anand sacrificed a knight for three pawns and won with crisp tactics at two different stages.

In his seventh title in 12 years. Anand had played several varieties of chess there. It started with a classical chess win against Miguel Illescas in 1997. Then, the advanced chess match win against Anatoly Karpov in 1999, advanced chess tournament win against Judit Polgar and Alexei Shirov in 2000, advanced chess tournament win against Peter Leko and Alexei Shirov in 2001. In rapid chess, Anand beat Carlsen and Kasimdzhanov in 2005 for the title. Last year, Anand won the 2006 edition beating Lazaro Bruzon and Veselin Topalov for the title. This year he kept the title again.

World No.1 in classical chess, Anand's lead over the rest should be huge when it comes to rapid chess. Rapid chess with his presence is making no contest these days. That the organisers in Mainz, Germany have now moved from match to tournament format and they have rapid chess and chess960 all-play-all in tournament format for next month's event involving Anand.
 

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Published : 10  July , 2007