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World champion Viswanathan Anand failed to replicate his superb form of the last few rounds as he drew his final game in the 'A' group against Loek van Wely of Holland to finish joint fourth in the Corus Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
Anand, who had beaten strong opponents Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Alexei Shirov of Spain, tried his best with black pieces but van Wely was quite up to task in defending and the game was eventually drawn.
World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway won the title after a hard fought draw with Italian prodigy Fabiano Caruana in his final round game.
Carlsen finished with 8.5 points, half a point more than Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Alexei Shirov of Spain who both lost to Anand in the second half of the tournament.
Anand and Hikaru Nakamura of United States, who beat Sergei Tiviakov of the Netherlands in the final round, tied for the fourth spot on 7.5 points apiece.
Meanwhile, former world junior champion Indian Abhijeet Gupta rose to the occasion to beat Ray Robson of United States to finish clear second in the 'C' group of the tournament.
Abhijeet defeated American GM Ray Robson, who was leading the field at one stage, in a one-sided affair.
Chinese Li Chao won the 'C' group after a fine victory in the last round over Zhaoqin Peng of the Netherlands. Chao finished with 10 points out of a possible 13 and will get invitation to the next year's 'B' group.
Abhijeet finished with 8.5 points, half a point clear of nearest rivals Daniel Vocaturo of Italy and Robin van Kampen of the Netherlands.
The other Indian in the fray, reigning world junior girls' champion Soumya Swaminathan lost her eighth game in the tournament and finished at the bottom along with local player Sjored Plukkel on three points.
Anish Giri announced his arrival in to big league by winning the 'B' group with awesome ease. The 15-year-old Giri finished with nine points in the strong 'B' group after settling for a draw with India's Parimarjan Negi in the final round.
The second place went to top seed Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany who tallied 8.5 points. Wesley So of Philippines and Erwin l'Ami of Holland shared the fourth spot on 7.5 points each, half a point behind third finisher Ni Hua of China.
The Indian duo of Parimarjan and P Harikrishna were joint sixth on a fifty per cent score. In his final round, Harikrishna played out a draw with Tomi Nyback of Finland.
Results final round:
Group 'A': Loek van Wely (Ned, 5.0) drew with Viswanthan Anand (Ind, 7.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 5.0) drew with Jan Smeets (Ned, 4.5); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 7.5) beat Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 4.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 8.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 5.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 7.0) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 6.5); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 8.0) drew with Lienier Dominguez (Cub, 6.5) Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 8.0) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 7.0).
Group 'B': Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 8.5) beat Erwin l'Ami (Ned, 7.5); Wesley So (Phi, 7.5) drew with Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 5.5); Varuzhan Akobian (Usa, 4.5) beat David Howell (Eng, 6.0); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 6.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 9.0); P Harikrishna (Ind, 6.5) drew with Tomi Nyback (Fin, 5.0); Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 5.5) drew with Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 6.0); Dmitri Reinderman (Ned, 5.0) drew with Ni Hua (Chn, 8.0).
Group 'C': Danielle Vocaturo (Ita, 8.0) beat Soumya Swaminathan (Ind, 3.0); Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 3.0) drew with Benjamin Bok (Ned, 7.0); Li Chao (Chn, 10.0) beat Zhaoqin Peng (Ned, 5.0); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 8.0) beat Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 6.0); Kjetil Lie (Nor, 5.5) lost to Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 6.0); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 6.0) lost to Robin Swinkels (Ned, 7.5); Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 8.5) beat Ray Robson (Usa, 7.5).