E-Paper
World No. 2 Anand is the king of Leon
World No. 2 Viswanathan Anand staged a superb rally to score a comprehensive 2.5-1.5 victory over FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan to win the 18th Magistral Ciudad de Leon Chess tournament here.
World No. 2 Viswanathan Anand staged a superb rally to score a comprehensive 2.5-1.5 victory over FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan to win the 18th Magistral Ciudad de Leon Chess tournament here.
In what was a great comeback, Anand, trailing 0-1 after losing the first game, won the second and the fourth game and drew the third to attest his superiority once again in the rapid version of the game.
Having earlier beaten prodigious Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in the semis, it turned out to be another memorable outing for Anand here after he had won the Advance chess title on three previous occasions on Leon soil. The victory in the fourth game for the Indian ace was a real treasured one as he accomplished a fine task in the final game with a piece sacrifice that resulted in a winning endgame almost instantly.
Starting off with the Anti Marshall opening setup, Anand could only get a miniscule advantage out of the opening but once Kasimdzhanov erroneously embarked on the exchange of queens, Anand was quick to spot a brilliant knight sacrifice that forced the swap of all black queen side pawns and instantly white's own pawns had a telling effect.
With hapless knights doing nothing to salvage the position, Kasimdzhanov found nothing to counter menacing white forces and called it day on the 39th move when Anand's threats became irresistible. Earlier in the day, the third game of the match had ended in draw albeit after giving another scare to Anand.
