Anand to meet Topalov in 9th round of Amber chess

Its been a great comeback by Anand in the last few rounds. His previous round victory over Kramnik was exemplary in a Petroff defense game and he was lethal in his quest over Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan whom he beat 2-0.

Anand’s main rival in the combined standings are Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen who both are a half point behind the leader. Of the two,Aronian has to meet same opposition as Anand but Carlsen has a tougher task on hand as he hasn’t played Kramnik yet.

Kramnik slipped to fourth spot after the debacle against Anand on 9.5 points and the Russian was left to do some hard work in the rounds to come in matches against Ivanchuk,Carlsen and Hungarian Peter Leko. The fifth place is held by Leko on 8.5 points while in a tie for 6-8 places Russian turned American Gata Kamsky,Topalov and Morozevich are locked together on 7.5 points apiece.

Ukrainians Vassily Ivanchuk,Sergey Karjakin and Radjabov share the 9th spot on 6.5 points while Wang Yue is now at the bottom with 5.5 points.

In the blindfold section,Carlsen is in sole lead with 6.5 points and Anand is the only one within striking distance of the Norwegian a full point behind.

In the rapid section,Anand now shares the lead with Kamsky and Aronian with five points out of a possible eight games played so far. There are just three rounds or six games remaining in the unique event that has one blindfold and one rapid game in each round.

Anand has had a terrific run after the first rest day and he will be hoping to continue with the same form in the last few matches. The game against Topalov will be crucial for the Indian ace as the Bulgarian is known to be a tough nut to crack and has the knack of coming from behind in almost all the events where he shines.