Anand finishes joint 6th, Aronian wins Amber Chess

Nice, France, Mar 28 (UNI) Continuing his below-par performance, World champion Viswanathan Anand settled for two draws with Holland's Loek Van Wely as he finished tied sixth in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament here.

Armenia's Levon Aronian emerged as the sole leader and finished the tournament with an impressive 14.5 points after playing out two draws with Peter Leko of Hungary.

Anand was at tied sixth spot alongside Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine as both finished with 11 points each.

The Indian had a poor tournament this year particularly in rapid chess which is considered to be his asseet.

Meanwhile, for the second place in the overall standings, it was a four-way tie with Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Leko sharing the honours with 12 points each.

Aronian won the tournament with an impressive 2.5-point margin while the Armenian also emerged out as winner in the rapid section with a clear 1.5 point lead.

In the rapid section, Aronian finished with eight points while Ivanchuk ended second on 6.5 points. Boris Gelfand of Israel, Topalov and Carlsen were at joint third with six points each whereas Anand, with five points, took the eighth place.

It was a four-way tie at the top in the Blindfold section with Aronian, Kramnik, Topalov and Alexander Morozevich of Russia all ending up with 6.5 points each.

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