Another title for Anand

India's FIDE World chess champion Vishwanathan Anand added another title to overflowing cupboard, with an excellent last round win in the two-day rapidplay event at the Villarrobledo Open in Spain on Sunday.

Anand, a brand ambassador of Indian IT giant NIIT, aggregated 7.5 points out of nine, the same against Alexei Shirov of Spain, but the Indian took the title on a better tie-break score. Shirov’s tie-break score was 57, compared to 58 for Anand.

GM Atanas Kolev of Bulgaria was third and Yugoslav GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic, who shared the lead with Anand after Day 1, was fourth. Kolev and Ljubo finished with seven points each.

For Anand, it was a third title at Villarrobledo, having earlier won it in 1996 and 1998.

The two-day event in Villarrobeldo carried a total prize purse of three million pesetas (approx US $ 16,500) and attracted more than 35-odd Grandmasters and 20 International Masters in a field of 193 players. The games were played on a 25-minutes-a-side format.

For Anand, who is planning to take a break and prepare for the upcoming World championships, likely to be held in Island of Crete in Greece and London, this was a good morale booster, considering the event had some good Grandmasters and International Masters.

A week earlier, Anand had won the 'Made for TV' title, against Hungarian Peter Leko in Cologne, Germany.

Starting the second day after five straight wins on the first day, Anand drew with Ljubojevic quickly in the sixth round and then played another draw with Shirov in the seventh round.

A third straight draw came Anand’s way in the eighth round as he split a point with Bulgarian Kolev. At this stage with one more round to go, Shirov moved ahead with a win over Ljubojevic.

For the first time in event, Anand was behind. Despite a half point lead, Shirov needed to win his last round as in the case of a draw he would finish second on tie-break.

As Anand played a fine game against GM Zeev-Alon Gofshtein of Israel, Shirov inexplicably agreed to a draw in just nine moves against Kolev in the final round. It may well have been a calculated risk, for Gofshtein did look likely to hold the Indian to a draw, in which case Shirov would be a clear winner.

But caught in time pressure after a Sicilian-Paulsen opening, the Israeli GM was unable to get the draw. He blundered in time pressure, as he had only a minute and 47 seconds left while Anand had more than 10 minutes. Anand’s 'a' and 'b' advanced pawns were moving up dangerously and in an attempt to stop them, Gofshtein blundered his queen and resigned immediately. The game lasted 46 moves.

Gofshtein tied for ninth to 21st places and ended 17th on tie-break. The NIIT-sponsored Anand ended the tournament with six wins and three draws.

On the first day, he scored five wins in five games. His wins came against Gabriel Fernandez, Daniel Barria, Oscar de La Riva, GM Evgenij Agrest and his own trainer, Elizbar Ubilava, who finally ended in a tie for 37th to 39th place. The tie interestingly also had Swedish GM, Ferdinand Hellers, a former trainer with Anand.