Triumphant end to Anand8217;s Bonn voyage

Anand, with 3.5 points from six rounds, entered the final along with Kramnik 4 pts, who had two victories one each against Kasparov and Vassily Ivanchuk.

Anand and Kramnik, the player expected to carry on the Russian chess legacy, fiercely fought four games but all the games were drawn necessitating rapid-fire tie-breaker.

The Indian, who was in the same situation when he challenged Anatoly Karpov of Russia for the Fide world title in Lausanne earlier this year, came up with inspiring degree of concentration and lightning moves to beatKramnik.

In the fight for the third place, Kasparov came better off Ivanchuk of Ukraine. Anand had shown rare sportsmanship by letting Ivanchuk escape with a draw when the Ukrainian had been left with hardly few seconds on his clock in the fourth round. On the other hand, Kramnik exploited Ivanchuk8217;s time shortage without any mercy to take the lead earlier.

The sporting gesture from Anand had endangered the Indian8217;s qualification as he was forced to defend with black pieces against revenge-seeking Kasparov. No wonder Anand had the support of 500 odd spectators.

For the first game in the finals, Anand adopted an old line which he had used to defeat former World Champion Mikhail Tal, quite some time ago, and drew the game in English opening after 33 moves with just bishops of opposite colours remaining.

Anand could not make effective use of his white pieces and Kramnik soon equalised easily.The trend of draws continued and the stage was set for tie breakers with faster time control.

The Grandmastersplaying in Masters8217; group left their games to watch the maiden duel between World no 2 and 3 in a match. The first break game was fought bitterly and Kramnik-not comfortable in faster games-just managed to save the game. On the other hand, anand was visibly happy to play at his customary terrific pace. The second game also ended in a draw and Vladimir Kramnik was visibly tired of playing speedy chess against the speed king from Chennai.

The crucial third game had a usual 8220;Anand touch8221;. The champion played at breathtaking speed and forced Kramnik to surrender before the spectators understood the results.

For the second year in a row, Anand has managed to upstage the cream of world chess to prove his supremacy in the speed chess. When Garry Kasparov had arrived in Frankfurt four days ago, he had remarked that he considered 8216; Frankfurt Speed Chess Classic8217; as an unofficial World chess championship in speed chess.

Now Anand requires no other certificate than this to stake his claim on worldtitle.

Result final V Anand 3.5 beat V Kramnik 2.5.