Anand finishes fourth, Grischuk new World Blitz Champion

Rishob Lezion, Israel, Sep 8 (UNI) Viswanathan Anand's reputation as the undisputed king of faster version of the game took a beating with the Indian wizard finishing a poor fourth and Russian Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk emerging as the new FIDE World Blitz Champion.

The top seeded Indian won eight out of his 15 games, while both Grischuk and Peter Svidler won nine each before Grischuk won his sudden death game with white pieces against Svidler to lift the title.

The 92,500 dollar tournament followed a time control of four minutes with an increment of two seconds per move, starting from move one.

Final Standing: 1. Alexander Grischuk (10.5) 2. Peter Svidler (10.5) 3. Teimour Radjabov (10) 4. Viswanathan Anand (10) 5. Judith Polgar (9.5) 6.

Boris Gelfand (9.5) 7. Etienne Bacrot (8) 8. Magnus Carlsen (7.5) 9.

Sergey Erenburg (7) 10. Emil Sutovsky (7) 11. Merab Gaunashvili (7) 12. Michael Roiz (6.5) 13. Ilia Smirin (6) 14. Mikhail Gurevich (4) 15. Dan Zoler (3.5) 16. Gavy Lifshitz (3.5).

UNI XC AY YA RAI1846