Anand is third at Sofia Masters

Anand finished with 5.5 points winning three, drawing six and losing two games in the event.

The victories for Anand came in the first half only when he beat Etienne Bacrot, Topalov and Ponomariov of Russia while a loss against his old-nemesis Gata Kamsky in the third round of the tournament and a subsequent loss of a point against Topalov in their return game proved too costly for the Indian.

Topalov came up with yet another masterpiece to beat Bacrot of France to lift the title on his home turf.

Topalov finished with an eventual score of 6.5 points in all, bettering nearest contender Kamsky of the us by a half point margin after the latter was involved in a drawn game against Russian Peter Svidler, who ended up being forth.

Anand faced the queen pawn opening as black against Ponomariov in the final round of the event and did not take many risks in the Petrosian system of the Queen8217;s Indian Defence.

Ponomariov had a level position on board in the middle game that suddenly turned volatile when Anand activated his forces and soon the Ukrainian was on the defensive battling an inferior endgame.

However, white was never completely lost and propelled by some fine defensive method Ponomariov was able to convert to a drawn opposite colour bishops endgame. The game lasted 53 moves.