Anand suffers shock defeat

Sofia:

Top seed Viswanathan Anand's hopes of winning the title took a beating when he was shocked by local star Veselin Topalov in the 6th round of the MTel Masters chess tournament here. Former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine also scored an unexpected victory against Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia while World's top woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary recorded a win over Brit Michael Adams. The tournament standings saw some major changes on a day when all the three games ended decisively. Ponomariov leads Ponomariov became the new leader with 3.5 points to his credit while Topalov, Kramnik, Adams and Polgar were right behind him on three points each. The loss proved too costly for Anand as he was pushed to the last spot in this double round robin tournament being played under classical chess rules. With just four rounds remaining in the event, the Indian was on 2.5 points. Advantage white It is said that white holds some advantage in chess and the statement was further attested yesterday as all the games ended in favour of players who started with the favourable colour. The last time both Anand and Kramnik had lost during a tournament was during the 12th round of the Corus meet at Wijk Ann Zee in 2004. The Russian had gone down to Dutchman Ivan Sokolov while Topalov had proven to be the Indian's nemesis. (PTI)