Viswanathan Anand outwits Topalov to surge back into lead

New Delhi: Viswanathan Anand regained the sole lead with a sparkling victory over former challenger Veselin Topalov from Bulgaria in the ninth round of Candidates chess tournament, in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, on Sunday.

The hard earned victory gave five-time world champion Anand six points out of a possible nine.

Equations went for a toss in the ninth round as Shakhriayar Mame dyarov defeated top seed Levon Aronian of Armenia and Vladimir Kramnik suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Russian teammate Sergey Karjakin.

The other game between Russians Dmitry Andreikin and Peter Svidler ended in a draw.

With five rounds still to go, Anand now enjoys a full point lead over Aronian who remained on five points after the debacle. Kramnik was joined by Karjakin and Mamedyarov on 4.5 points in joint third spot while Andreikin and Svidler are now joint sixth on four points and Topalov is last on 3.5 points.

It was Anand’s day all the way. Up against Topalov’s pet Sicilian Najdorf, Anand did not give much away in the opening as white and retained a minuscule advantage as the game entered unchartered territory.

Topalov decided to go for exchanges at regular intervals while his position remained slightly worse and this was not a good strategy as Anand continued to exert pressure when the game reached queen and minor piece endgame.

The Indian picked up a pawn when Topalov erred and handled the remaining technicalities of the queen and pawns endgame in masterly fashion to script his third victory in the tournament.

Mamedyarov played the spoiler for Aronian and continued with his roller coaster ride in the tournament. He made sure he held his own after attaining an advantage against Aronian.