Linares (Spain): Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand has toppled Veslin Topalov to be crowned the new World No 1 after winning the Morelia-Linares chess tournament on Sunday.
A final-round draw over Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine after 31 moves not only saw the Indian superstar regaining the trophy after nine years, but also become the FIDE numero uno for the first time in his illustrious career.
After notching up 8.5 points out of a possible 14, Anand ended a full point clear of his nearest rival, Norway's Magnus Carlsen, who lost to Peter Leko of Hungary to finish on 7.5 points.
Anand had little work to do in the final game against Ivanchuk as the latter could not get much with his white pieces in the Queen's Indian defence game. The queens got traded early in the middle game and even as Ivanchuk had an optical advantage, Anand was always with in the boundary of a draw. The peace was signed after 31 moves.
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