Anand

Monaco: Viswanathan Anand suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Russian Alexander Grischuk in the fifth round of 15th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Championship here.

The 0.5-1.5 loss proved quite costly for the defending champion on Thursday as the Indian not only lost the joint lead in the combined standings but also slid down in blindfold.

While Anand was below par against Grischuk whom he had beaten comprehensively in Mainz, Russian Alexander Morozevich took rapid strides ? especially in the blindfold section ? and downed compatriot Peter Svidler. In the return rapid game, Svidler came up with a fine performance to level scores.

Morozevich is leading the event jointly with Hungarian Grandmaster Peter Leko, both having earned 6 points.

Anand (5.5) is joint third with Spanish Francisco Vallejo Pons. The Indian GM is followed by a pack of four, including Grischuk and world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

Morozevich emerged as the sole leader in the blindfold section in which he has thus garnered 4 points. Morozevich’s nearest contender in this section is Leko (3.5) while Topalov has 3.

After the disaster against Grischuk, Anand has now been pushed to joint eighth spot with 2 points.

Anand, playing black, went for the Berlin Defence against Grischuk. Perhaps the Indian wanted to surprise Grischuk who only took it as a pleasant surprise as the events unfolded.

While both players blitzed out the opening moves quickly on a blank chess board displaying only the last move played, Grischuk gained the upper hand when Anand went for an erroneous plan. The Russian was on top despite Anand exchanging pieces at regular intervals and turned the tide decisively in his favour after winning an exchange. Anand resigned on his 40th turn.