Wijk Aan Zee: Viswanathan Anand struck back with a vengeance, beating Dutchman Loek van Wely in the ninth round of group A of the Corus International Chess Tournament on Tuesday.

After two losses in three days, Anand finally found his touch after the second rest day.

The 41-move victory also helped Anand to narrow the gap between him and tournament leader Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria after the latter was held to a draw by Levon Aronian of Armenia.

Topalov (6.5 points) retained his sole lead as nearest contender Azeri Teimour Radjabov also settled for a draw with Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.

While Radjabov edged himself up to six points, world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia signed peace with compatriot Peter Svidler and both inched to 5.5 points along with Aronian.

Anand is now joint sixth with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine on five points .

In group C, GM Parimarjan Negi scored a thumping win over Dutch GM Harmen Jonkman. He took his tally to five points in the event that is being dominated by Ian Nepomniachtchi. (PTI)