Rapid glory for Anand

Monte Carlo, Mar 29: India8217;s Viswanathan Anand, despite suffering a reverse in the blindfold and losing the final round 0.5-1.5 to Vassily Ivanchuk, finished one point ahead of Kramnik to take the rapid title in the Eighth Melody Amber rapid and blindfold chess Tournament on Sunday. Anand finished with seven points in rapidplay, and tallied 11.5 to finish fourth overall.Vladimir Kramnik of Russia took the overall championship with 14.5 points. He drew both 11th round games against his former second, Joel Lautier of France. Kramnik has won this event for the third time.

Veselin Topalov Bulgaria and Alexei Shirov, who were breathing down Kramnik8217;s neck, tied for second spot half a point adrift. Topalov and Shirov recorded 1.5-0.5 victories over Anatoly Karpov and Jeroen Piket in the final round.

Kramnik, Topalov and Shirov tied for the the first place in the blindfold section.

Results 11th round

Rapid: Gelfand lost to Ljubojevic; Ivanchuk drew Anand; Nikolic drew Van Wely; Karpov drew Topalov;Lautier drew Kramnik; Piket lost to Shirov.Blindfold: Ljubojevic lost to Gelfand; Anand lost to Ivanchuk; Van Wely drew Nikolic.

Overall Standings: 1 V Kramnik 14.5; 2-3: A Shirov, V Topalov 14; 4-5: V Anand, J Lautier 11.5; 6 A Karpov 11; 7-9: P Nikolic, L Ljubojevic, Ivanchuk 9.5. 10-12: L Van Wely, B Gelfand J Piket 9.