Corus Chess: Shock defeat for Anand

Wijk Aan Zee:

Defending champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocking loss at the hands of Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the 12th round of Corus Chess tournament. Despite the loss, Anand (8 points) maintained a slender half point lead over nearest contender Grandmaster Peter Leko of Hungary. GM Michael Adams of England might join Leko in the second spot as he enjoyed a favourable position against local veteran Jan Timman. The penultimate round was in fact topsy-turvy in more ways than one as the biggest upset of the tournament also came in this round. Dutchman Ivan Sokolov, who had not won a game so far in the event, accounted for top seeded and Braingames match winner Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Next week Anand is going to play a match with Topalov in Bulgaria and the game today might as well have served as curtain raiser for the main event. Though been in tremendous form so far in this category 19 event, Anand could not really match Topalov who has thus far had mixed results here. Playing black for the last time in the event, Anand just needed a draw to ensure himself the title as he plays white against tail-ender Ivan Sokolov in the final round game tomorrow but as things turned out, the Indian star was denied the needful by a resurgent looking Topalov who put up a tremendous effort to score against the man in form. (PTI)