Gill congratulates Anand on retaining title

New Delhi :

Sports Minister M S Gill on Wednesday congratulated grandmaster Viswanathan Anand for retaining his World Chess Championship title by defeating local challenger Veselin Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria.

"I am delighted at Anand's win at the World Chess Championship. I congratulate him. He is a great credit to India," Gill said in his congratulatory message.

Playing with black pieces in the 12th and final game of the competition, Anand achieved an improbable win over Topalov to retain the world title by 6.5-5.5 margin.

Anand, thus, became the first official world champion in recent history to win two back-to-back matches in world championships against different opponents.

Earlier, in 2008 Anand had won the world title in a match against Russian Vladimir Kramnik, in 2006 he had won the World Championship match tournament ahead of almost all top players in the world and in the year 2000 he had won the championship when it was held on a knockout basis.