Anand draws with Topalov, loses sole lead

Nice (France), Mar 25 (PTI) World champion Viswanathan Anand played out two draws with Bulgarian world number one Veselin Topalov in the ninth round to surrender his sole lead in the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament here today.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Levon Aronian of Armenia caught the Indian in lead with an identical 1.5-0.5 victories over Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine and Alexander Morozevich of Russia respectively.

With just two rounds to come in the strongest ever Amber, the leaders have 11.5 points each and they have a 1.5 points lead over Russian, Vladimir Kramnik who found his nemesis in Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk.

The lead for the three leaders is a clear indication that only these three will be fighting for supremacy now.

The encounter between Topalov and Anand was closely followed by everyone as they are not only top players in the world rankings but will also face each other in the World Championship match next year.

The blindfold game was a sharp and interesting fight in the Caro Kann defense, but it was also far from flawless. In the opening Topalov mixed up moves with white pieces and ended in difficulties.
PTI

Chetan in second round, World no 1 crashes out of Indian Open

Hyderabad, Mar 25 (PTI) Third seed Chetan Anand staved off an early scare from Chong Chieh Lok of Malaysia to enter into second round of the Indian Open Grand Prix badminton tournament here today.

The Indian shuttler wrapped up the affair 14-21 21-9 22-20 in a grueling tie that lasted for 47 minutes.

Meanwhile, Chinese shuttler Long Chen pulled off probably the biggest upset of the tournament when he stunned world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia 21-7 16-21 18-21.

Chetan made a strong comeback after losing the first game 14-21 to the Malaysian and spanked him 21-9 in the second, before the third game saw a tooth and nail battle.

The duo went neck and neck from 14-14, 16-16, 19-19 to 20-20, before the world number 12 Chetan sealed the match 22-20 to set up a second round clash with another Chinese Wenlong Zhou later today.

In the other match, world number one Lee Chong made an aggressive start, thumping Long 21-7 in first game but world number 147, Long soon avenged by bagging the next game 21-16, making it one-all.
PTI