Press Trust of India
London, Dec 9: Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand bounced back Wednesday from his fourth round loss and beat his former World Championship challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the fifth round of London Chess Classic here.
After suffering a defeat at the hands of Hikaru Nakamura, the Indian staged his customary comeback in style, giving an endgame lesson to Topalov who remained on the bottom of the tables.
Yet again, there was just one decisive game and the remaining four ended in draws. Armenian Levon Aronian started out what Nigel Short termed as a ‘coffee house’ attack against World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the game ended in a stalemate.
Nakamura pressed for an advantage but English Michael Adams remained solid as ever while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France signed peace with Anish Giri of Holland after an interesting battle. In the other game of the day, Fabiano Caruana of United States was on the verge of winning against Russian Alexander Grischuk but could not do so as he failed to spot a Queen-side opening.
Past the half way stage and with just four rounds to go, Giri, Vachier-Lagrave and Nakamura continued to lead the tables with three points apiece while Anand, Carlsen, Caruana, Grischuk, Adams and Aronian have all got 2.5 points each. Topalov is on just one point.
Anand went for the variation Vachier-Lagrave had chosen against Topalov successfully just a couple of days back. Realising that the Bulgarian was a bit tentative in sthe low positional game against the French Grandmaster, Anand decided to test the variation again.
It was a quiet opening and a quieter middle game where pieces changed hands and the players arrived at a rook and minor pieces endgame in which Anand had a superior knight.
The opinions on the outcome of the game were divided as many Grandmasters thought black will be able to hold but Anand came up with a pawn sacrifice to lure Topalov in to a crisis situation.
The finale was picturesque as Anand created a checkmate web around Topalov’s King in quick time and the Bulgarian could only watch as he first saw his extra pawn and subsequently the Bishop disappear from the board. The game lasted 74 moves.
“It’s a good win,” said an elated Anand after the match. “More so, because I needed it to stay in contention for the top spot,” he added.