Anand is champion

His nearest rival, Alexy Shirov, failed to inflict on Gary Kasparov his first defeat of the tournament and played a 17-move Sicilian game that ended in a draw with perpetual checks. The day’s third game between Vesselin Topalov and Vassily Ivanchuk also ended in a draw.

Anand ended the tournament with 7.5 points and finished a clear half point ahead ofShirov. In the final round of the seven-player tournament with an average Elo rating of 2752, Anand (black pieces) was comfortably placed in the opening against Kramnik. Despite knowing a draw was sufficient to ensure the first place, Anand even seemed to make some attempts to go for a win in the game that was a Nimzo Indian. The two players finally decided to split the point after 34 moves.

Shirov and Kasparov were engaged in a sharp Sicilian game that lasted 17 moves and ended with perpetual checks. Kasparov’s only decisive game was a win over Anand in the third round. Topalov and Ivanchuk also played a Sicilian and drew in 41 moves.

In terms of rating performance in the tournament, Anand played very well. He had a tournament rating of 2844 as against his rating of 2770. Others to gain points were Shirov (2710) and Peter Svidler (2690), who despite his fifth place had a rating performance of 2733. Kasparov (2825) will lose some points as he had only 2769.

RESULTS

14th round: Shirov drew withKasparov, Kramnik drew with Anand, Topalov drew with Ivanchuk.

13th round: Anand bt Topalov, Kasparov drew with Kramnik, Svidler bt ShirovFinal standings: 1. Viswanathan Anand (7.5), 2. Alexy Shirov (7.0), 3-4. Vladimir Kramnik, Garry Kasparov (6.5 each), 5. Peter Svidler (5.5), 6. Vassily Ivanchuk (5.0), 7. Vesselin Topalov (4.0).