Corus: Anand wins record fifth title

Viswanathan Anand won the Corus chess tournament on superior tie break ahead of world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria after a splendid victory over Boris Gelfand of Israel in the 13th and final round game that concluded in Wijk Aan Zee.

After Topalov was held to a draw by defending champion Peter Leko of Hungary, Anand was under pressure to score a victory over Gelfand and the Indian ace did it in style for his record fifth triumph on Sunday.

With this victory Anand surpassed three four-time champions, Max Euwe of Holland  who won it in 1940, 1942, 1952 and 1958, Hungary's Lajos Portisch who was a winner here in 1965, 1972, 1975 and 1978 and Switzerland's Victor Korchnoi who annexed the crown in 1968, 1971, 1984 and 1987.

Apart from the highly satisfying victory, Anand had another reason to cheer as he will now cross the magical 2800 Elo barrier for the first time in his career.

The Indian ace stands to gain more than 10 Elo rating points from this tournament which will add to his present rating of 2792. After Russians Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Topalov, Anand will be the fourth player in the history of the game to achieve this peak.

The Indian ace did everything right in the event apart from an utterly forgettable loss against old rival Gata Kamsky of United States earlier in the tournament.

Overall, Anand won six games lost one and drew the remaining six. Topalov also achieved the same score with a lone loss against Michael Adams of England but his tie break score fell shorter than Anand.

Since the last Linares tournament in Spain that he won jointly with now-retired Garry Kasparov of Russia, the Bulgarian has been on a real high and was also a runaway winner in last world championship match tournament at San Luis in Argentina.

However, with this event, Topalov's winning streak in the high category events has come to a halt. The third place in the category 19 event was jointly won by Michael Adams of England and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine who both scored 7.5 points apiece. Of the two, the latter was impressive in the final encounter of the 14-player round robin tournament as he beat world's youngest ever Grandmaster and compatriot Sergey Karjakin.

Karjakin and Gelfand had to be content with joint fifth spot on 7 points while Sergei Tiviakov of Holland, world cup winner Levon Aronian of Armenia and Leko finished in a tie for 7-9 places on a fifty percent score. Loek Van Wely of Holland ended 10th on 6 points, Etienne Bacrot of France was next in the standings on 5.5 while twice world junior champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Kamsky finished equal 12th on 4.5 points.

The last place was taken by local stalwart Ivan Sokolov who lost his final duel against Aronian.

In the 'B' group being organised simultaneously Alexander Motylev of Russia was declared the winner on a superior tiebreak than Norwegian boy-wonder Magnus Carlsen. It was a dramatic last round in this section as overnight leader Zoltan Almasi of Hungary was beaten by Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria that paved the way for Motylev and Carlsen to come up triumphs.

In the last round Carlsen scored over tailender Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine while Motylev had it easy against former world junior girls' champion Koneru Humpy. Despite the loss in the last round, Humpy stands to gain a few important points from this event. Starting as the 13th seed in this 14-players tournament, Humpy finished tied 10th on 6 points.

Anand was back to attacking against the Nazdorf in his pet English attack in the crucial game against Gelfand wherein the Israeli played black.

Gelfand missed a tactical nuance in the middle game and was left defending a slightly worse position for a long time after Anand came up with an incredible exchange sacrifice and did not shy away from entering an end game thereafter.

To Gelfand's credit, he defended mightily, but in the end was helpless against Anand's continuous improvement of his position with deliberate pawn thrusts that left the Israeli defenseless. Gelfand threw in the towel on move 66.

Results final round: Michael Adams (Eng, 7.5) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 4.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 7.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 7); Peter Leko (Hun, 6.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 9); Levon Aronian (Arm, 6.5) beat Ivan Sokolov (Ned, 4); Gata Kamsky (US, 4.5) lost to Sergey Tiviakov (Ned, 6.5); Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 9) beat Boris Gelfand (Isr, 7); Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 5.5) drew with Loek Van Wely (Ned, 6).

Final Standings: 1-2. Anand, Topalov 9 each; 3-4. Adams, Ivanchuk 7.5each; 5-6. Gelfand, Karjakin 7 each; 7-9. Tiviakov, Leko, Aronian 6.5 each; 10. Van Wely 6; 11. Bacrot 5.5; 12-13. Mamedyarov, Kamsky 4.5 each; 14. Sokolov 4.

Group 'B' results: Alexander Motylev (Rus, 9) beat Koneru Humpy (Ind,6); Ivan Cheparinov (Bul, 7) beat Zoltan Almasi (Hun, 8.5); KaterynaLahno (Ukr, 2.5) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 9); Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 7)drew with David Navara (Cze, 7.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 4) lost toGiovanni Vescovi (Bra, 6); Baa dur Jobava (Geo, 8) beat ArkadijNaiditsch (Ger, 7); Daniel Stellwagen (Ned, 3) drew with AlexanderBeliavsky (Slo, 6.5)

Group 'B' Standings: 1-2. Motylev, Carlsen 9 each; 3. Almasi 8.5; 4.Jobava 8; 5. Navara 7.5; 6-8 Cheparinov, L'Ami, Naiditsch 7 each; 9.Beliavsky 6.5; 10-11. Vescovi, Humpy  6 each; 12. Smeets 4; 13.Stellwagen 3; 14. Lahno 2.5.

The moves: (Viswanathan Anand v/s Boris Gelfand)

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3Be6 8. Be3 Nbd7 9. Qd2 b5 10. O-O-O Nb6 11. Qf2 Nc4 12. Bxc4 bxc4 13.Na5 Qd7 14. Rd2 Be7 15. Rhd1 Rb8 16. Bc5 Qc7 17. Rxd6 Qxa5 18. Rxe6fxe6 19. Bxe7 Rb7 20. Bd6 Nd7 21. Qh4 Qd8 22. Qh5+ g6 23. Qh6 Qf6 24.Ne2 Kf7 25. h4 g5 26. hxg5 Qxh6 27. gxh6 Rg8 28. g4 Rg6 29. Rh1 Rb630. Ba3 Rf6 31. Rh3 Kg6 32. Kd2 Rf7 33. Ke3 Nf6 34. Nc3 Rd7 35. Rh1Rc6 36. Na4 Rb7 37. Nc3 Rb8 38. Nd1 Ng8 39. Rh5 Nxh6 40. Rxe5 Nf7 41.Rh5 Rb5 42. Rh1 e5 43. Nc3 Rb7 44. Nd5 Re6 45. Bb4 Kg7 46. Rh2 Ng5 47.Bc3 Kg8 48. Rf2 Rf7 49. Rf1 Re8 50. Ke2 Ref8 51. Bxe5 Nxe4 52. Ke3 Nc553. f4 Re8 54. Kd4 Nd7 55. Re1 Re6 56. Re2 Nxe5 57. fxe5 Rg7 58. Nf6+Kf7 59. Kxc4 Rg5 60. Kd4 Rb6 61. c4 Ke6 62. b3 Rb8 63. Re4 h6 64. Nd5Rbg8 65. Nf4+ Ke7 66. e6 black resigned