This is Anand’s fourth Corus title overall

Wijk Aan Zee: World rapid champion Viswanathan Anand won his second successive — and fourth overall — Corus chess championship title (as reported in Monday’s Late City edition) with a quick draw against local hope, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov, in the 13th and final round game on Sunday.

Anand became the fourth player in the tournament’s 66-year history to annex the title four times. He had earlier triumphed in 1988, 1998 and 2003.

The trio to have lifted the crown four times earlier consists of former world champion Max Euwe (1940, 1942, 1952, 1958); Lajos Portisch (1965, 1972, 1975, 1978); and Viktor Korchnoi (1968, 1971, 1984, 1987).

Anand finished with a tally of 8.5 points, the same as last year.

The Elo points gained from this triumph will take Anand back to the No. 2 slot in the world rankings, ahead of Vladimir Kramnik and behind Garri Kasparov. The next Fide list is due in April.

Not wanting to take any risk after a debacle against Veselin Topalov in the previous round, Anand settled for the draw in just 14 moves with white pieces, well aware that his main contenders had a daunting task as they had to win with black to catch up with him.

As it turned out, British GM Michael Adams could not score the required full point against some solid play by Russian GM Peter Svidler and signed the peace treaty in 26 moves.

GM Peter Leko of Hungary was kept in suspense by top seed Kramnik for long before the draw was finally agreed to on move 65. Leko and Adams tied for second place with 8 points.

The meet saw Anand winning five games, losing one and drawing the remaining seven. The loss to Topalov was especially painful as it ended Anand’s undefeated six-year run in the Corus meet.

The fourth place was jointly shared by Topalov and Moldovan Viktor Bologan. Both tallied 7.5 points and displayed superior form towards the end of the event. Bologan was the more impressive as he notched up 4.5 points from his last five games while Topalov won his last two games.

FINAL STANDINGS

1. Anand (8.5); 2-3. Leko, Adams (8 each); 4-5. Topalov, Bologan (7.5 each); 6-8. Kramnik, Van Wely, Bareev (6.5 each); 9-11. Svidler, Akopian, Shirov (6 each); 12-13. Sokolov, Zhong (5 each); 14. Timman (4).