Anand wins Corus Chess title

Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands:

World Cup Champion Viswanathan Anand began the new year in style winning the 65th Corus Grandmasters Chess tournament today. The 31-year-old Indian superstar annexed his third Corus title, tallying 8.5 points from 13 rounds, pipping the likes of Braingames Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. After his closest rival, world's strongest woman chess player, Judit Polgar, played a quick draw with talented youngster Teimour Radjabov of Azerbeijan, Anand settled for a quick 14-move draw with Evegeny Bareev of Russia in the 13th and final round. Polgar, who held Anand to a draw in the penultimate round, finished second with eight points. The swift game, in which Anand played white, began from the French defence, which went into the Burn Variation. The Indian champion played it safe and soon signed offered the draw, which was accepted by the Russian after a brief thought. Radjabov finished with 6.5 points in the lower half of the standings. Anand and Polgar were the only players to finish unbeaten in 14-player all-play-all tournament. Anand had four wins, and they came against Ponomariov, Alexei Shirov, Veselin Topalov and Anatoly Karpov and he drew his other nine games. (PTI)