Anand sweeps Amber titles

Viswanathan Anand completed the formalities of winning his fourth Amber chess title after two easy and quick draws with Israeli Grandmaster ...

Viswanathan Anand completed the formalities of winning his fourth Amber chess title after two easy and quick draws with Israeli Grandmaster Boris Gelfand in the 11th and final round here.

History repeated itself in the 14th edition of the traditional tournament at Monte Carlo Grand as Anand encored his 1997 triumph winning all the three titles ‘rapid, blindfold and combined’ at stake. Incidentally, the Indian is the only player to have achieved this feat.

Anand recorded an overall tally of 15.5 points which in the end proved 2.5 points more than Alexander Morozevich who continued to excel in Amber by finishing a clear second in combined standings. The third place was jointly shared by Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Peter Leko of Hungary who both scored 12 points apiece while Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia had to be content with sole fifth place in the combined standings with his 11.5 points.

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Kramnik was a joint winner here in the last edition along with Morozevich.

The Indian ace had won the blindfold section a round to spare and in fact stamped his authority on it with a huge two points margin tallying 8 points out of a possible 11.

It may be recalled here that in the previous edition Anand was a clear winner in the rapid section but in the blindfold his form was wanting. But the amendments he made this time to win the title was there for everyone to see.

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