Anand emerges clear champion

Tilburg, Nov 5: It took just about an hour for Vishwanathan Anand to install himself as the new champion at the Fontys-Tilburg International...

Tilburg, Nov 5: It took just about an hour for Vishwanathan Anand to install himself as the new champion at the Fontys-Tilburg International Grandmasters Chess Tournament here last night. The Indian Grandmaster, who has been in brilliant form throughout the year, logged 7.5 points from 11 rounds and emerged as the clear winner.

In the final round, Anand drew with Peter Svidler, who with Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik had finished joint first here last year.

While last year Kasparov, Kramnik and Svidler shared the title with eight points each, in 1996, the first edition of the Fontys Tournament, Boris Gelfand and Jeroen Piket has shared the first place.

The game between Svidler and Anand lasted just 17 moves after Anand with black opted for the solid Caro-Kann defence. Anand got the draw he need as Svidler realised he could not cause any upset. Svidler has never beaten Anand and the two players had agreed to a similar last round draw in Madrid, where too Anand had eventually won the tournament.Anand remained unbeaten in the 12-player category 18 tournament.

Prakash leads

SURAT: GB Prakash of Bank Sports Board beat S Saha of Revenue Sports Board and secured 9.5 points to lead after the 12th round of the 36th National B8217; chess tournament being played at Experimental school here today.

International Women Master Anupama Gokhale won over D Prasad. Both were leading with 8.5 points each.

Important results after 12 rounds: GB Prakash 9.5 bt S Saha 8.5; Lanka Ravi 9 drew with N Mishra 9; S Roy 9 drew with SK Rathod 9; P Konguvel 8.5 drew with V Koshy 9; Anupama Gokhale 8.5 bt D Prasad 8.5; S Tilak 8 lost to N Das 9; Ravi Hegde 9 bt P Joshi 8; Jayant Gokhale 8.5 drew with T Ravi 8.5; Tejas Bakre 9 bt V Sarin 8; RB Ramesh 8.5 bt A Lahari8.

Humpy sole leader

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CASTELLON, Spain: Koneru Humpy of India u-12 girls emerged sole leader in her group while her colleague Tanya Sachdev secured third position in the same category in the ninthround of the World youth chess here today.

In the boys section, Abhijit Gupta u-10 boys, P Harikrishna u-12 boys, Valay Parikh u-14 boys, MR Venkatesh u-16 boys and Beenish Bhatia u-18 boys won their respective matches.