Anand reaches final of Leon Rapid Chess tournament

Leon, Spain June 10 (UNI) A far from impressive Viswanathan Anand had to toil hard to go past former world junior champion Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba to reach the final of the 19th Leon Chess tournament here.

Anand could settle the issue only in tie-breaker after he was held to draw in the first four rapid games by the Cuban in the first semi-final.

In the final tomorrow, the Indian Grandmaster will play either World Champion Veselin Topalov or Pons Vallejo of Spain who are scheduled to play the second semi-final later today.

Anand was not in his elements against the Cuban opponent who made some excellent moves and did not allow Anand to gain control of the board and forced him to draw all the four games taking the fight to tie-breaker.

The four games were played with a time control of 20 minutes per game plus 10 seconds increment each per move.

However, the Cuban proved no match to the World Rapid Chess champion Indian in the Classical Blitz games of five minutes and Anand finally won in the tie-break with a total score 4.5-3.5.

UNI XC PDS ND1612